To Be at Peace
by WinterAngel4632
Summary: This is a sequel to My Number One, so if you haven't read the first fanfic, I would go over there and read that first. This is a Inuyasha X OC Story.
1. Prolouge

**Welcome to the sequel of Number One! I have decided that I left the ending far too open to just end it there. =] So now we're back for the second book. We'll start stuff off with a prologue.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha and not any form of it.**

**Prologue**

I was living the dream. I fell in love with my best friend after losing him. I faced almost marrying another but then my village got attacked and I got away. I some how ended up in the future and when I went back to my time, I was fifty years from when I was originally living. I was reunited with my best friend but he was sworn not only to another girl, but two other girls.

I decided that I would rather be friends than nothing at all so I joined him and his friends on a journey to find jewel shards that could make any demon that possessed all the shards, completely and utterly invincible. We also had to destroy a demon overlord that was terrorizing the land and that tried to kill me the fifty years before. On the way to the final fight I only fell more and more in love with him and gained more jealousy for the ones I believed he cared for more than me.

What confused me was that even though those girls were before me with his love, he still said I was his number one, which he had always said to me since we were children back in the village, playing in the field of wild flowers.

Then the time came where the demon we were after captured me. During the time I spent in that prison I was in a terrible state of mind. Luckily one of the minions helped me out and assisted me in my escape. I made my way out of the castle but before I left I heard that the demon was actually in a weak human state.

Once I got back to my friends we made a plan of attack and after gaining a few people to help, we were out to kill the demon that's done something to all of us. The breaking in was easy, the finding him was difficult, but once we did find him we gave the bastard his last words and then we did what had to be done.

After the final fight we had with him, my friend and I went back to the village we both grew up in. One thing led to the next and we were back to the field we spent so much time in as children. I admitted my feeling to him and it turned out that it was mutual. _So_ happy, beyond belief. I get goose bumps still just by thinking back to it, which happens quite a bit.

We got back to the village where the gang always meets up and when we got there, one of the girls Inuyasha left, the one who was part of the group, was not happy that I was with the one she was interested in. Everyone else, the demon slayer, the monk, and the two demons approved of my best friend and me being together.

We're still out looking for the rest of the Shikon Jewel shards, and I'm still with Inuyasha, the only man I will ever love.


	2. New Adventure

**Now onto the first chapter of To Be at Peace. Normally I would have a recap of that happened in the last chapter but this is the first chapter and the prologue was a recap of the first part of the story, Number One. So…..I'm just gonna disclaim now.**

**Disclaimer: I still don't own Inuyasha guys =D**

**Chapter 1: A New Adventure**

This is it. The final one, all or nothing, the winner gets it all. A bead of sweat trickled down the side of my face as I locked eyes with my opponent. I had to somehow read his thoughts but I knew I didn't have time to think too hard about it.

"Rock!" Sango shouted out. I had to pick!

"Paper!" Miroku joined in. What was I going to do?!

"Scissors!" Shippo yelled. Just do something!

I flashed my hand out and it took me a moment to process that I used a paper and Inuyasha used a rock. I gasped and covered his rock with my paper.

"_Yes_! I win!" I shrieked in joy. I jumped around in a circle before punching the air. "Ha! I am the Rock, Paper, Scissors _Champion_!"

"Pft, like I care anyway," Inuyasha scoffed, putting his arms inside his sleeves and rolling his eyes. "It's just a stupid game."

"Oh don't be a soar loser Inuyasha," I snickered. "You're just mad that you didn't win is all."

"It's true," Shippo agreed. "You were gloating it up when you beat Miroku and me."

"Well it's over now," Kagome sighed, "can we please do something else?"

"She's just angry that she was the first one to lose," Sango whispered to me, not very quietly.

She frowned and put her hands on her hips. "No, I'm just saying that it's been almost a month since we've found any jewel shards."

"So? We have way more than half of the jewel, Kohaku has one in his back, Koga has two in his legs, so there has to be only three or four shards left. We can handle any demon that gets hold of all four. We're in no rush."

Sango glanced at him warily.

Kagome's head perked up. "Speak of the devil."

Inuyasha lowered his ears and put his arm around my shoulder protectively as a strong wind blew through the trees, towards us.

I knew what this meant. I groaned and knew that even though I was the Champion of Rock, Paper, Scissors, that wouldn't help me none with the young wolf demon. Even though I've been with Inuyasha for six months now, Koga still isn't getting the hint that he has no chance. He tried going back to Kagome but she didn't like being someone's second choice. I guess that sort of applied to Inuyasha too. But Koga flipped back to me, not believing that we were one hundred percent committed. He's expecting Inuyasha to run after another girl. I use to be worried about the same thing but the longer I spend with him the more I know that won't happen.

Then Koga stood in front of me and grabbed my hands. This was far too familiar. "Hello again Midori, how are you this morning?"

I took my hands back and sighed, "Hello Koga. What are you doing here?"

"Can't I just drop by and say hi to my fiancée?"

Inuyasha raised his fist but I pushed him back. "Koga, we are not engaged. I. Am. With. _Inuyasha_. How many times must I tell you that?"

Koga burst out laughing. "Sorry Midori but that ungrateful mutt flips in between girls every once and a while."

"And you're any different?" I questioned. "Just get out of here Koga before you get me angry."

"Or worse, before you get _me _angry," Inuyasha growled, cracking his knuckles. "My patience is running thin with you."

Koga smirked. "I would consider a fight to finally finish this off dog face, but I didn't just come here to flirt with my one and only. There's this demon princess off to the east of the stray demons. She's been pretty quiet for a really long time, according to my elders, but apparently she's coming back to get shards. Just a warning to you," he narrowed his eyes at Inuyasha, "watch over Midori or it will be more than my pleasure to end you."

Inuyasha glanced down at me and I stared right back up at him. "This…Princess of the Stray Demons, why would she be a threat?" he asked.

"Inuyasha don't you remember the rumors about her when we were younger?" I asked, recalling stories of her. "Princess Akki completely dominated the east in her youth but after a big fight she was forced into hiding. That's probably why she's after the shards now, to regain her power."

"I remember such stories as well," Miroku added. "People have been waiting for her to come back. She's supposed to be _very _beautiful. Hmm."

Sango smacked him without hesitation. "Pull yourself together."

"I'm sure Grandpa knows a thing or two about Princess Akki," Kagome added. "He know more about this time than the one he was born into."

"Sounds like you all are good off here." Koga winked at me. "See ya 'round Midori."

Once he was gone Inuyasha couldn't wait to go on his rants about how he was a 'damn idiot' and how he 'has a lot of nerve'. I admit, I think he's cute when he gets angry with his ears twitching around but I knew it was my job to calm him down. Kagome sure as hell wouldn't jump at the opportunity to get in her old spot, or what she believed was her old spot so I had to be supportive.

"Don't let him get to you Inuyasha," I smirked. "That's what he wants to happen."

"No, what he wants to happen is steal you out from under me. Probably while I'm not looking so he can stab me in the back too." I took a hold of his hand and forced him to start walking like we were before we stopped by the river to rest, and have our match. "I better keep a close eye on you then huh?"

"I guess you should. But Koga would have to get me while I'm kicking and screaming. And biting. And punching. And probably using my fan."

He chuckled at the mental image. "I doubt he'll get that far."

"Jeez, I hope so." I hugged his arm. "So now we're going up after Princess Akki. Seems like just yesterday we got rid of Naraku."

Inuyasha glanced back at the rest of the group, that was following us at a respectable distance. "To be honest, I'm surprised Sango and Miroku are still here."

"Huh? Why wouldn't they be?"

"They had their reasons to go after Naraku, but not to go after the rest of the jewel shards. I thought they would have settled down by now."

He's right, they have no reason to be following us around anymore. I'm sure Inuyasha, Shippo, Kagome, and I can handle getting the rest of the shards in a safe place. Then again…leaving Shippo to deal with the three of us, more importantly Kagome and Inuyasha, even I wouldn't want to be in that position.

It's been six months and Kagome still hates my guts. I haven't gotten on her case about it yet but with the dirty looks she keeps on throwing at me, she's getting there pretty quick. I could feel her glare as I held his hand.


	3. Let it Out

**So now the group is on a journey to the east to see the big deal about this Princess Akki of the Stray Demons. They got the tip from Koga who's still trying to get his hands on Midori. Not even a big successful in that area. As usual.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Inuyasha =]**

**Chapter 2: Let it Out**

"Okay, so what do we know about this Princess Akki?" Sango asked while we ate dinner in a room we gained for the night in a village we fought off a demon spider for. "I never heard of her."

Miroku spoke up after he set his bowl down. "Princess Akki is a mountain lion demon from the east, from a royal family of demons, and in her rule she expanded her lands. She was very brutal and wasn't afraid to kill human armies, on her own, to take over land. Of course they kicked her out of rule but that's when she got an army of stray demons. That's when she killed off everyone, including her parents. Um that's basically all I know. Midori, do you know more?"

"Well the demon she fought all that time ago was…some snake demon from some other land. He nearly killed her and ever since she's been slowly getting better, but slowly. The snake demon died a while ago but she's still cooped up in the mountains, hiding. The last attack that she claimed too was probably close to a hundred years ago. Inuyasha you have to remember stories from when we lived in the village. That sort of stuff started to float around again, about her coming back and doing minor attack?"

"Yeah, but those were just rumors. They had to be since she's only coming back now," he shrugged.

"I don't know about that," Sango disagreed. "It's not completely impossible that Princess Akki tried to come back, back then. Something else could have happened to send her back for another fifty years though."

"I guess we won't really know until we see her huh?" Shippo inquired.

"Guess not," Kagome responded, sitting on the opposite side of Inuyasha. He's tried talking to her but that always ended in about eight 'Sit's. "So then we're just heading to the mountains in the east?"

"Sounds like it," Inuyasha replied. She shot a cold glare at him and he shuddered. I glared right back at her. He didn't say anything _wrong_.

"Um Kagome, Midori, join me to the baths?" Sango insisted, getting up onto her feet. "Now?"

"Of course Sango," Kagome agreed, sounding exasperated.

My hand pulsated from a fist to and open hand before I calmed down enough to give Inuyasha a quick kiss on the cheek and followed after them. I admit that I grumbled some pretty vile stuff, but Inuyasha was probably the only one who heard.

My irritation with Kagome built even more as we walked down the hill. I could hear her mumbling about Inuyasha while Sango walked next to me. I watched her as I put my long blonde hair up and she glared at me every once and a while.

Once we all were in the water Sango clapped her hands together. "Okay, have at it," she declared.

"What?" she questioned.

"Kagome, you're obviously irritated with Midori. Midori, you're obviously irritated with Kagome. So, go ahead. Argue."

"Why do you want us to fight?" I asked.

"Because it's not healthy to hold that kind of thing in! Miroku, Shippo, and I are waiting for someone to blow! So let's get this over with before we have to spend months together. Go on," Sango enthused.

Kagome and I exchanged looks and I have never felt so naked in my life. Then Kagome frowned at me. "You know I liked him, why would you swoop in and take him from me?!" she demanded.

I was surprised how eager she was to yell at me. Then I realized that I was stupid for being surprised.

"I waited for and fought for him, for a really long time! Then you come along and ruin everything I've been working for!"

I sat there for a moment before processing. "You know _nothing_ about waiting! Ever since I first saw him I knew he was going to be something special to me and we were best friends for _years_ before you came along! And you shouldn't even have to fight for him!"

"Easy for you to say you blonde _bitch_, he came crawling to _you_!"

"I didn't fight because I knew he already had you and zombie lady to keep his hands full! I told myself that if I couldn't be with him, I was going to be the best of friends I could have been to him. I knew I couldn't go living on without him again."

"Don't you try that gushy stuff with me! I spent so long feeling like nothing next to Kikyou and now I feel like nothing next to you! I care for him!"

"If you cared for him than you should be happy that he's happy!"

This knocked her off course for a moment so I should have taken this opportunity to calm her down since I want to be the bigger person in this…but I was still angry…

"You're acting like a spoiled child, fighting over him likes he's a doll," I huffed, looking off in another direction.

"Excuse me?! You wanna have a real fight _Blondie_?" she challenged.

"Bring it on _Dead Weight_!"

While we crawled out of the water, Sango tried to reason with us. "Okay girls, this is getting a bit out of hand! I think we all need to settle down a little and think things over."

I tied up my kimono and slid out my fan. "As you said Sango, we need to work things out before we have to go after Princess Akki."

"Yeah, this is only healthy."

"Talking it out is healthy, fighting isn't," she corrected, grabbing her clothes so she could stop us.

When I turned around to fight, Kagome already had an arrow knocked and pointed at me from the other side of the pond. A smirk crossed her lips then she released the arrow. I flashed out my fan and sliced it before it hit me.

"Hey, do you know how hard it is to replace those?!" she yelled, stomping her foot like a child.

"What did you expect me to do?! Let myself be shot?!"

"It would be preferred." She pulled out another arrow and aimed lower. As soon as I saw her fingers loosen a little, I jumped up into the air. I saw the arrow lodge itself into the ground below me. I landed on top of the arrow and snapped it. This sent me stumbling right into the hot spring. I screamed and fell right into the water.

I popped up and gasped for air. Kagome and I met eyes and she lifted her bow at me. I blinked a few times then burst out laughing. Once I started, I couldn't not stop.

Kagome started laughing too and almost fell over she was laughing so hard. Sango joined in once I pulled myself out and my clothes were sopping wet.

"O-Okay," Kagome tried to breathe, "I feel so much better. Midori?" She held out her hand and I shook it. "If I were to be content with either you or Kikyou being with Inuyasha, it would be you. Actually, I'm glad that I don't have to be worrying about him anymore."

"Maybe you could take Koga off my hands?" I offered.

"Ha, ha, no. It's too fun watching Inuyasha get worked up."

I sighed. At least I got _her_ off my back.

"That worked better than I thought it would," Sango commented. "Let's go get you out of those wet clothes Midori."


	4. As Soon as We Figure it Out

**So Kagome and Midori sorted out their differences in the last chapter. I needed to get that junk out of the way before anything else happened. Now I can get some real stuff in that might have a bit less yelling. Maybe.**

**Disclaimer: Do not, does not, will not own Inuyasha.**

**Chapter 3: As Soon As We Figure it Out**

Inuyasha starred at Kagome and me while we stood next to each other while Miroku asked for directions to the mountains. None of us have been there before so we didn't know the way and Inuyasha couldn't sniff it out.

The villager pointed up the road. "Once ye go over those hills you'll be able to see the mountains. I warn ye, something tis up with that place. See?" he gestured to the large river at the edge of the road. "Tis running the wrong way."

The water was going _towards_ the mountains and up the hills, that's impossible since water runs in a downwards slope.

"Many thanks," Miroku bowed. "You heard the man, we'll be able to see them in no time."

We all started walking again and it feels like we've been doing nothing but walking for a very, _very_ long time. Which we have, counting the time before we killed Naraku. It seems almost never ending. Inuyasha walked up and stood besides me. "This buddy-buddy thing you have with Kagome is creeping me the hell out," he whispered in my ear. "Are you guys planning to kill me or something?"

Kagome glanced at us and walked ahead, up to Miroku, Sango, and Shippo. She probably knew what he was whispering to me.

"Is there a reason for me to kill you?" I questioned.

"I don't know. Usually when people are mad at me and I don't know what I did or say most of the time."

Very true. "Well I'm not angry, not at all. Kagome and I have sorted things out is all. Nearly killed me in the process but it's much better now. She hasn't glared at me once," I smiled.

Now, as his girlfriend and best friend I knew he was on edge. He always holds my hand unless he's uneasy about something. It's my job to know.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

"Just having a weird feeling is all, probably just Princess Akki's demonic presence."

"You can feel that from all the way back here? She must be pretty powerful."

"If there's anything worse than a powerful demoness, is a powerful demoness that's craving power. And we're the ones that she's probably going to go after to get this power. I think we should make camp for tonight so we're ready for her tomorrow."

This made me even more concerned, Inuyasha wanting to take precautions? I guess she has to be _really_ powerful then.

I stayed leaned up against Inuyasha while Sango at the other side of the fire talked to Kagome from next to me. Inuyasha sort of just listened, same with Miroku, and Shippo laid in Kagome's lap sleeping. Miroku seemed like he was on the edge of sleep and I was right there with him.

I blinked my eyes slowly and found that my mouth was really dry. I recalled the river that ran the wrong way not even that far from here.

I yawned and sat up. "I'll be right back."

"Where ya goin'?" Inuyasha asked while I got up. He sounded almost tired, he's been going without sleep for a while now.

"Just going to get a drink is all."

"Be careful," he warned, "it's pretty dark back there."

I lifted up my foot at him and wiggled my toes. "No shoes, so I'll be just fine." I smiled at him and went into the trees to find that river to get a drink.

I ran my hands across the trees as my night vision set in. Soon enough the sound of the fire was drowned out by the sound of the water rushing towards the mountains. I no longer freaked out at the little sounds of the woods, like the scampering and the little growling from the small demons at either me or something else. My fan was at my waist at the ready to slice at anything that gets the nerve to attack me.

I kneeled down by the river and scooped up the water by my hands. I looked up at the sliver of the moon between drinks. Hopefully this Princess Akki thing doesn't take long, Inuyasha will be turning human pretty soon. I haven't been worried about that sort of thing since Naraku, but now that we have an actual threat to go against again, I'm worried about him all over again.

I love that boy but he tends to get impatient and aggressive when he doesn't do anything for a period of time.

Something moved behind me and I shot my head around. A squirrel ran up a tree and I took a deep breath. I took another handful of water and splashed it in my face before standing up.

I better get back to the group before Inuyasha thinks something bad happened to me. I don't know what he would expect to happen between there and here, but he worries, like how I worry.

I took a step towards where we made camp but stepped on something that hissed and coiled around my leg. I screamed and jumped backwards trying to shake it off. Then the ground disappeared out from under me and I went falling into the water. I felt the snake come off but the river moved fast, I couldn't touch the bottom, and I couldn't get to the edge to stop myself. I had no idea what else to do but yell for help.

"INUYASHA!" I tried to swim over into the edge but I ran into a rock and lost control. I struggled to keep my head above water. "Inuyasha! Help me!" I swallowed some of the water and coughed. I couldn't stop coughing and couldn't see around me.


	5. Where the River Went

**Midori fell in the river in the last chapter. I don't really want to say more than that because I'm afraid that I'll say something I shouldn't =] So that's what happened in Chapter Three. You'll have to continue to see what happens in this chapter, obviously.**

**Disclaimer: Don't Own Inuyasha, still, I know.**

**Chapter 4: Where the River Went**

As soon as I opened my eyes I started to freak out. I lifted my head and looked around in a pure panic.

I found that I was in a cave with lanterns burning at the front of the cave but not in the back. A river ran right through the middle of the cave. I was soaked completely down to the bone and I was sitting in a puddle that I assume came from me.

Where am I?!

I got up onto my feet and my knees wobbles. I touched the fan at my side and I thanked Kami I didn't lose it when I fell into the river. Wait, the river! It runs towards the mountain so I must be…

I gulped and looked up slowly. I shrieked a little when I saw full body demons stuck to the ceiling with swords, spears, daggers, any weapon held the clawed up dead demons above me.

"So you have spotted my collection," a deep, strong female voice hummed from the shadows. "Their eyes have been very useful to me."

I looked up again quickly and notice that none of them had their eyes. How…_disgusting_! I turned back to the shadows. "Is there a name for you or are you going to stay in the darkness and nameless."

"Hm…I suppose I can honor you with my name. I am Princess Akki of the Stray Demons. Ah, this is _fun_! What's your name little, weak, human girl?"

I stared at the darkness confused. The voice just got younger.

"My name is Midori, you're the princess?"

The voice giggled. "Yup, yup! You should be so pleased not only to be in my wonderful cave but I also pulled you from the river. I was certain you were as good as dead but I guess you weren't!"

I reached close to my fan but her voice got older.

"That's no way to treat someone who saved your life," she warned. I saw a pale white hand lift out of the shadows and she pointed at me with her long sharp fingernail. The hand was young, but she should be hundreds of years old. "Don't be stupid Midori, this would be one fight you would not win."

I have to pick my battles. I took my hand away. "You must understand my wariness, I did just wake up in a cave with dead demons on the ceiling."

The hand went back into the darkness. Her voice went young again. "What a smart girl you are Lady Midori! Maybe I'll keep you as my pet!"

"Huh? I don't think so."

"I don't think you're in a position to deny a princess of doing what she wants," she huffed. "You owe me your life anyway."

I don't like where this is going. If I'm going to get out of here, I shouldn't piss her off. "Look, your highness, I just can't. I have friends I was traveling with until I fell in the river." And we were off after you, maybe to kill you, maybe not.

"Where…do you live?" She suddenly didn't sound like a happy little child anymore.

"I don't live in a village, why?" I questioned.

"Ah! I was going to send a bunch of demons there! How dare you go against my wishes!" A small girl stepped into the light and it revealed a true cougar demon. Her hair was to her pointed ears and gold. Her eyes were bright orange and cat-like. She also wore an outfit made of armor and silk. From behind her I saw a large, thick tail. "I am the Princess of the Stray Demons you wench!"

Oh what did I get myself into…wait…

"Fifty years ago did you attack a village?!" I demanded, rushing up to her. "Tell me you little brat!"

She rose her eyebrow and crossed her arms. "A brat huh?" She slowly got taller and her face and body matured. Soon enough she was taller than me and looked plenty stronger. "You don't know who you're dealing with! And yes, I did sent demons to a village fifty years ago, I eat eyes your see." A evil grin crossed her face while she moved closer to me, I felt my brave façade crumbling. "They are the windows to the soul. I do like your eyes, what an odd color to find with humans in this land." She reached out to grab my face but I quickly backed up. "You should be scared!"

She swung her leg around and made a painful connection to my chest. I flew backwards and skidded on my back. I ripped out my fan but before I could get up she stepped on my arms with her wooden sandals.

"Get off of me bitch! You killed my village! I'm going to murder you!"

She put her palms over my eyes while I struggled and screamed at her continuously. "Ah, so _that's_ what you're doing on my land with your friends. Here to kill the ever so mighty me huh?"

"We were seeing if you were a threat to people! Now I'm going to make sure you die, threat or not!" I yelled furiously.

She removed her hands from my eyes and slapped me across the face. It stung and I felt the claw marks on my cheek. Blood started to ripple down to my ear. "Oh stop your whining you idiotic moron. I remember that village, not much of a fight. And I didn't want a bunch of human eyes, their souls are boring. You know what they say, eyes are the windows to the soul," she smirked. "Did you run away while your fellow villagers were in trouble and being killed? Is that how you survived and all of them didn't?"

"Shut up!" I screamed. "I didn't want to run!"

"Oh but you did. Just by peeking into your soul I see guilt about that night. I also saw a weakness of yours."

My eyes grew. "Weakness?"

"I've heard of him before, this Inuyasha character, I guess it was your group that killed that Naraku. But it was this love for this just as weak hanyou that has weakened you throughout your life. Pathetic."

"Weak?!" l suddenly got incredible strength in my arms and shoved her off of me. I jumped onto my feet and swiped at her with my fan. "He is not weak! I can handle people calling me weak but you cannot call Inuyasha that!" I leapt towards her and cut her across the stomach. "He'll wipe you off of the face of the earth for doing that to our village!"

She put her hand on the cut. "It'll be hard to find him again when you don't have your eyes!"

"Uh oh." I ran over to the river and jumped in.


	6. Stray Demons

**Okay people, I am requesting a bit of maturity. Normally I would be a hypocrite because I'm the most immature person I know, but Princess Akki is a cougar demon. -_- I wasn't going to call her a mountain lion demon so I have no choice. *giggle***

**Disclaimer: Own Inuyasha I do not.**

**Chapter 5: Stray Demons**

I screamed as I went flying off the edge of the water fall. I was in the air flailing for a few seconds before landing in the water below. I swam to the surface and gasped for air. "H-Holy shit!" I stammered, shaking while I swam over to the edge.

So many things were running through my head but the two things that stuck out the most was how angry I was. At Princess Akki of course, for killing my village for no apparent reason and insulting Inuyasha, but also because of me bring wet _again_.

Knowing that if I were still wet by the time the sun goes down, I would freeze. So I quickly made a fire and I admit that I was…well naked for a time while my dress dried. I wasn't going to wear a wet dress while it got colder.

I threw a few sticks into the fire, now fully clothed again, and then looked up at the night sky. The moon was hardly even a sliver in the sky. Inuyasha will be turning human soon, not like he can sniff me out right now. I've been riding rivers for how long and water doesn't hold scents.

I glanced at the waterfall I came flying out of. I couldn't see up high enough to see where the cave was, where I faced a shape shifting Princess Akki.

I just want to go home, to Inuyasha and the others. Why did I have to fall in that damn river?! What kind of idiot falls into a river?! I could be cuddled up next to Inuyasha right now if I didn't freak out about that snake!

I shook my head and threw more sticks into the fire. No reason in complaining when I can't do anything about it. I'll eventually get back to the group. They know where the river leads. Don't worry Midori; you'll be back to everyone in no time. This is the first time I've been alone since Inuyasha left the village. Actually I've never been completely alone like this before, no sign of anyone I know for miles. I've become so independent of him being there.

God I'm depressing.

I rolled my eyes. I haven't even been alone for a whole night yet, and I'm already annoyed with myself? Oh boy. This is going to be _fun_.

I was pulled out of my dream about Inuyasha by the strong wind that blew right through all the trees. I opened my eyes and yawned. I sat up and noticed that the fire was completely out and the sun was just starting to come up. It was still pretty dark though.

I rubbed my eyes and got the sleep out. That when I noticed all the little red eyes around me in the trees, staring at me. They growled and hissed when they saw I saw them. I sighed and got onto my feet. Nothing like just waking up and having to fight for your life. I slide out my fan.

"Does anyone here speak?" I asked out, still waking up.

All the eyes seemed to shift to a certain pair of eyes that weren't red, they were gold. It reminded me on Inuyasha's.

"Um, I can," a young voice came from the eyes. "What do you want?"

"I just want to know if Princess Akki sent you."

"Her majesty sent us to kill a human girl with blonde hair and a fan of blades. That would be you."

I know full grown demons, there's only a few here. Why are there so many kids? Then it dawned down at me. She knows I wouldn't kill kids, she knew that when she put her hands over my eyes!

"How old are you?" I asked.

"Uh," he hesitated and looked around warily, "five?"

That's how old Inuyasha was when we started to hang out. This isn't good. I can't fight these kids! They've been convinced that Princess Akki is the good guy. I just need to be doing some convincing myself.

"You don't understand, the person you were looking for was not human, it was a shape shifter that I went up against two days ago that took my form then went to your mistress. I am not the one you're looking for," I explained.

"Is that true?" the young golden eyed boy whispered to the others. I couldn't understand what they said to him. "Some of us aren't convinced."

I sighed. "Did your princess get hurt at all during this meeting with this person you're looking for?"

"Yeah, she was sliced by a fan of blades."

"I'm only a human though, there's no way I could possibly hurt her. It must have been a demon right?"

"Oh…I guess that's true. Right guys?" There was more growls and snarls. "I know she said the one we were looking for was human, but this demon took the form of this human girl." The growls turned to grumbles. "They say we believe you, but we can't just let you go," the little one said.

I narrowed my eyes. "Why?"

"Just to make sure is all. If you are innocent of the crime then you have nothing to worry about."

Uh oh. "Hm…well I'm in sort of a rush…"

"Her highness is very reasonable, if you tell her that it wasn't you she'll believe you. It won't take long."

"I really don't have the time to humor any of you so…" It probably wasn't the wisest thing I could do, but I spun around and ran for it. I heard them start to chase after me after a few moments.

These are the stray demons that she takes in and makes armies out of. I've heard of her tactics, she makes them feel wanted and appreciated, then gets them to die for her. These poor demons.


	7. Unexpected Help

**I'll tell all of you what happened in the last chapter quick. Midori got a swift slap of reality in the face that she's completely alone and she got some stray demons chasing after her. Wasn't wise to run but if she went back to Princess Akki, she'd be in deep trouble, worse trouble than being chased by a pack of angry, loyal demons. Sometimes loyalty is a dangerous.**

**Disclaimer: Ha, still don't own Inuyasha.**

**Chapter 6: Unexpected Help**

These damn demons! I don't know how long it's been exactly since the day I met Princess Akki in person, but it feels like centuries. Day or night, it doesn't matter, these demons have been chasing after me. The hard fights were a while ago with the large demons that were able to catch up to me, but now I'm just running now since I know that they're only going to get younger and younger if I keep on killing the older ones off.

I dared to glance over my shoulder and was relieved to see nothing behind me. I distracted a lot of them with a certain wasps' nest. I guess I have a bit of a lead on them now. Thank goodness for that too.

I slowed down and my legs ached. I've been moving for quite a while now but I think I can relax for a bit. I haven't lay down and slept for a long amount of time, so I've been living off of little naps. I'm waiting to crash and by the way I feel right now, I'm going to crash hard and soon.

"Mm, lying down for a few minutes won't kill me," I yawned. Even though I was dead beat tired, I wrestled up enough energy to climb up a tree high enough not to be spotted from below. As soon as I made it to a sturdy branch, I was out like a light, even though I wasn't at all comfortable.

"H-Hey you! Get up before I have to uh…uh…hurt you! Yeah! Hurt you! Wake up!" a familiar voice stammered while I felt a pressure on my lap.

I lazily opened one eyes, not very scared since the voice was so young. A small boy with big gold eyes and short black hair laid on me. He had red lines on his cheek bones and pointed ears.

He raised his shaking clawed hand at me. "H-How dare you run away from us! You're looking awfully guilty right now!"

I sat up a little and yawned. "There's a child demon on me."

"You're darn right I am! A-And I'm taking you to the Princess!"

I blinked at him and stared for a moment. "Are you a dog demon?" I asked, noticing some familiarities. "You look a bit like Inuyasha."

His eyes grew. "You know Inuyasha?! He's the hanyou for the west right?! He's my hero! I'm a dog demon too!"

I blinked a few times. "Really? He's my boyfriend and one of the people I was trying to get back to." This could work out for me. "You want to meet him?"

His eyes glistened. "Could you really?! But…I'm supposed to bring you back to Princess Akki, but she's on the good side, and you're with Inuyasha and he's on the good side…I'm confused."

"Well…what's your name?"

"My name is Renki and I'm a hanyou."

My heart squeezed a little. Renki is a hanyou dog demon that's five years old, the same age as when I met Inuyasha. I can't hurt this kid!

"Would you like to come with me? I swear I'm really not a bad person." If I can just get one of them on my side, maybe I'll make it back to everyone faster and safer. I already have some new scars from being out here. "If I was, I would have killed you by now. I could use your help too."

"_My help_? You actually need _my help_?"

"Of course I do. Your sense of smell and hearing will help me find Inuyasha," I explained plainly.

He swayed a little and I was worried he was going to fall from the tree. "I'm going to help Inuyasha by bringing his woman back to him. Oh _jeez_."

"Are you okay Renki?" I questioned, noticing how pale he was.

"One moment I'm trying to figure out if I can kill you or not, and the next you're offering to have me meet my hero! No other hanyou in history has been able to be that strong! And…I would be the first half dog demon to meet him! This is what I've been dreaming about since I heard about him!"

Is this kid more in love with him than I am? I don't think my obsession was ever quite that bad.

"So you're coming with me then?"

"Uh…but Princess Akki…you were the one to hurt here and I have to get my revenge for that."

"Renki, she's not as good as you think she is."

"But she took all of us in. She took _me_ in and I'm a hanyou! No one else would have done that," he frowned at me deeply, his eyes fixed on me.

"She knows I'm dangerous right?" He nodded. "Then why would she put you all in danger if she cared?"

"We have to protect her, she's the princess…"

"Please come with my Renki, you'll be able to travel with Inuyasha," I reminded him.

He got that excited look in his golden eyes again. "Let's go!" he exclaimed excitedly at me.

Oh, that was easy. "Well…okay then, once I get out of this tree we can go."

"Yeah!" he jumped off of my lap and landed on the ground below us. "Come on, hurry it up!"

I think I just made a friend. I'm not alone anymore. I smiled a little and shimmied on down the tree. Renki's love for his hero is more powerful then his loyalty to Princess Akki. Thank goodness for that.


	8. More Unexpected Help

**Midori made a friend on her journey in the wilderness. He's a cute little dog hanyou like Inuyasha =] He joined her because he wants to meet his hero. Bet Princess Akki didn't expect this.**

**Disclaimer: Tis I that does not own Inuyasha!**

**Chapter 7: More Unexpected Help**

"What's with these guys?! Don't they remember who I am?!" Renki exclaimed, jumping out of the way of the snapping jaws of a demon.

"Since you're with me, you're an enemy now," I explained while I whipped around and sliced a bunch of them up. "Hurry it up Renki!"

Then he burst out running and a cloud of kicked up grass followed after him. I blinked a few times and tried to run faster. I had to continued to kill the demons that chased after me and eventually I had to run backwards so I could fight easier.

"Renki, I take it back!" I shouted, waving my fan around as fast as I can. "I need help, hurry!" When there was no sign of him coming back I yelled again while I held them off. "Damn it child, I know you can hear me!"

I took one final slice before they all stopped at stared.

"What? Can't handle all of this?!" I exclaimed, gesturing to all of myself. "Ha! You're all a bunch of wimpy old demons with nothing better to do than chase a human girl around a mountain! _Lame_!"

I turned around and froze like everyone else did. Renki stood a foot from a tall man with long snow white hair and gold eyes that could freeze fire. He wore clothes that implied that he was a lord of some kind. His ears were pointed like Renki's and I had a strange feeling about him. He looked over all of us and assessed the situation. I felt like I didn't want to mess with him.

"Rin, Jaken, there is no danger here," he stated impassively.

A small girl and a imp came out of the bushes with some sort of two headed dragon. What an odd group.

"What's going on here that would disrupt Lord Sessomaru's journey?" the small one, I assumed was Jaken, demanded at Renki.

"Hey, don't yell at him!" I shouted. I unfroze and stomped over to him. I shook my finger at the little green imp. "He's just a little kid!"

"It doesn't matter to me you foul girl-."

"Wait, did you say he's Lord Sessomaru?!" Renki gasped. "You're Inuyasha's step brother!"

My eyes grew and before I could do anything, Jaken whacked Renki over the head with his wooden staff with two heads on it.

"Don't you dare connect my lord to that disgraceful mutt!"

"Hey," I shouted, picking Renki up, "stop bullying him before I take that staff of yours and shove it where the sun don't shine! And don't you dare say such things about Inuyasha! If it weren't for him and the others, Naraku would still be reeking havoc!"

"You know Inuyasha?" the little girl named Rin questioned.

"Sure do," I glanced at Lord Sessomaru, "and you've tried to kill my boyfriend a few times by the sounds of it."

He stared at me blankly. "Hm, humans."

"Don't think you're one to talk considering you travel with one." I smiled at Rin. "Is he always like this?"

She nodded and smiled back. "All the time. In the morning, nothing, during lunch time, nothing, during dinner nothing, even in the middle of the night there's no emotions," she laughed.

"This is inconsequential," he stated blankly. "If you are with Inuyasha, why aren't you with him instead of with this filthy hanyou and a bunch of low class demons?"

"That doesn't matter, would you happen to know where Inuyasha is?" I asked. I glanced over my shoulder at the pack of demons still frozen behind us. "I'd like to get back to him as soon as possible."

He turned his face away and started walking. "I know nothing of his where abouts and know even less about you."

The demons hissed and stirred as Lord Sessomaru started to disappear from sight. I panicked and followed after him.

"U-Uh I don't want to be a bother, but where are you heading off to?" I questioned, hearing the demons growl not too far behind us. Renki sat on my shoulders as I walked quickly to keep up.

"You troublesome wench, leave Lord Sessomaru alone!" Jaken yelled at me, waving his fancy stick around at me.

"Sorry but if I had to decide between annoying a demon lord or fighting against a large pack of demons, I'd take my chances with the lord. My name is Midori and this is my friend Renki. If you just tell us where you're going we'll be on our way." I hurried up when no one answered. I ran up and stopped right in front of them. "I just want to get back to Inuyasha, and if you're going that way it would be easier to not be killed during the process."

He narrowed his eyes at me. "Get out of my way."

"Just answer me then!" I ordered.

The whites of his eyes turned red for a moment and shivers ran up and down my spine. For a few seconds I thought death was going to be coming early for me, but then his eyes got the white back. "I'm on business to meet with Princess Akki, whether she's real or not, about my lands in the west."

"She's all too real!" Renki huffed. "Once I worked for her, thinking she was nice, but now she's sending demons I use to know after us! Better be careful with your eyes too Lord Sessomaru!"

"His eyes? What would she want with his eyes for?" Rin asked, peaking around him.

"She uses her powers to see into your soul when she holds her hand over your eyes," he explained. "She might not be very strong now but the more eyes she eats, the more powerful she gets. That's why we've been attacking villages."

"Lord Sesshomaru could not care less about stupid human villages getting attacked by these stray demons," Jaken scoffed.

Sesshomaru glared at him as Rin backed up a little and rubbed her arm. I got the feeling that her village was attacked too, and obviously if she was traveling with Sesshomaru, there was some form of care.

"Excuse me you terrible little imp, but Princess Akki sent demons to attack my village. I honestly don't care if your lord cares or not."

"Lord Sessomaru, can they please come with us for now?" Rin requested sweetly. "They just want to get back to Inuyasha and the others."


	9. Inuyasha's Brother

**So Midori and Renki have joined Sesshomaru, Jaken, and Rin on their way to Princess Akki's. Of course it's not Midori's plan to go see her again, but she knows that's where Inuyasha and the others would be heading if they're looking for me.**

**Disclaimer: Do not own Inuyasha. Inuyasha own not do. Randomly wanted to do it backwards. Don't know why, just cuz. =]**

**Chapter 8: Inuyasha's Brother**

I yawned deeply and stretched out my arms. I get bored when I'm not doing anything, and I haven't been since two days ago, when we joined Lord Sesshomaru and his company. He's not as entertaining as Inuyasha, not like I expected him to be even close. I've heard of him and his boringness before but this is way worse then I expected. Makes me miss Inuyasha even more but I didn't bring him up. I was already standing on glass with Sesshomaru, so I don't need to jump on it too. Not until I'm back with the group anyway. It might be wrong to be nice to someone who's tried to kill the one you love on multiple occasions, but he's his brother. He has to be a bit different.

It might be because I've always wanted a sibling, which I did for a short amount of time, but I kind of wanted to get along with him. I'm probably looking in the wrong place for a sibling.

"Lady Midori, what happened to your feet?" Rin asked, noticing my scars while she rode on Ahun.

"Oh yeah, I haven't noticed that," Renki realized, walking next to me. "Looks like burn marks."

"It's not really a big deal, just had my feet to close to a fire is all. Not very fun to look at, it is?"

"I think it's cool!" Renki enthused. "Without that, you're some blonde that walks around without shoes on for no reason. Why don't you wear any anyway?"

"I find these questions meaningless," Jaken snapped. There was a bit of silence before he came back. "But _why_ don't you wear shoes exactly?"

"I trip a lot when they're on. Nice of you to take an interest Jaken," I commented jokingly.

"Oh please. Don't flatter yourself girl."

"I don't need the flattery." I glanced up while going up the mountain. I saw the demons circling around at the top so I knew that's where she was. I just wanted to get to the river and follow it back down.

"Say Sesshomaru, what are you planning-?"

Jaken whacked me over the head with his staff. "It's _Lord_ Sesshomaru to the likes of you!"

"Ow! Jeez, I was just wondering what he was going to do to Princess Akki if she doesn't cooperate, you sleazy little freak!"

"Sleazy little-!"

"Silence Jaken," Sesshomaru ordered. "The plan is that if she isn't going to be reasonable, then I'll handle her like I do with every other meddling thing I cross paths with. She won't be able to tell the tale."

I found this strangely satisfying. She did send those demons to my village for no particular reason and I will wish a most painful death to her. I think I can trust Sesshomaru to inflict that on her. I got an evil smile on my face at the thought.

"But Lord Sesshomaru, she's been getting stronger and stronger, what if something goes wrong?" Jaken mentioned.

He glared down at him. "Excuse me?"

Jaken froze a little. "U-Uh not like anyone could possibly overcome you my Lord! How silly of me to worry!"

"As it was," he mumbled, turning forward again. Whoever can stand him for years at a time must see something in him I clearly don't.

"Lord Sesshomaru," Rin smiled, "it sure is nice of you to take care of this Princess Akki for everyone. She doesn't sound very nice."

No kiddin'.

"Silly girl! He's not doing it to be _nice_! He's doing it to increase his own power!" Jaken snapped, glancing at me. "Only weaklings help others."

I frowned. I could have taken this two ways, he was implying that Inuyasha or I'm a weakling so I must defend myself, or I could turn this around on him. But it turned out that I didn't have to.

"That's not true!" Rin exclaimed. "Lord Sesshomaru saved me and he's not in the slightest bit weak!"

"Stop the bickering," he stated. "Jaken."

"Yes master?"

"Stop picking fights you know you can't win."

"…Yes master," he groaned, hanging his head in shame.

There was a long silence of us all just continuing to walk, and then Renki laughed, "What an odd lot we all have right now. We have a demon lord, his imp, two human girls, and myself; the hanyou."

Sesshomaru shot him a dirty look. I glared right back at him and pulled Renki over to me. He looked away and brushed it off as nothing.

I leaned down and whispered in Renki's ear, "Some people don't accept half demons like I do. Be careful who you tell." He nodded and held onto my hand. I felt his claws lightly brushing my skin and the thought of Inuyasha rushed back into my hand again. If Sesshomaru didn't hate him so much, I would tell Renki every story I had about Inuyasha, from even when we were young. "Don't worry though," I assured him, "one day you'll be big and strong like another hanyou I know."

"Who are you talking about?" Rin asked, overhearing part of that.

"Sesshomaru's brother," I responded. Jaken swung his staff to knock me over the head again for referring to his master informally again and probably for bringing him up. I caught it though and ripped it out of his hands. I threw it behind me and he went running after it.

"I've always wanted to know about him but no one ever told me. Can you tell me Lady Midori?" she requested.

"Of course but I don't think Sesshomaru would appreciate me teaching you about his rival. Or does he not even compare as a rival even though he destroyed Naraku?" I questioned, curious to hear his answer.

"That hanyou is not my real brother. Why would I care if a human girl wants to reminisce to children?"

I decided not to argue about it and took the opportunity to tell Renki and Rin about the one I missed most.


	10. And the Bitch Came Back

**So in the last chapter we got a little insight to what traveling with Sesshomaru, Jaken, Rin, Renki, and Midori was like. Bit of fighting, but that's to be expected. But Midori kind of, somewhat, got permission from his ever so highness to speak of Inuyasha. This is good I guess. =]**

**Disclaimer: I'm having a hard time thinking of a creative way to say I don't own Inuyasha. Well…I guess that works.**

**Chapter 9: And the Bitch Came Back**

This mountain is _way_ bigger than I remember. I guess it would seem that way since I traveled by river up and down the mountain and that moved a bit faster than how we're going. At least with Inuyasha and that group, we stopped to sleep. With this, if you're tired, you have to sleep on Ahun. With my luck, when I'm tired, Rin and Renki are already sleeping so I have to continue walking. Then by the time they wake up, we're going up a steep part of the mountain so I wouldn't be able to stay on. Of course, when we pass that part, Rin and Renki take their naps. When Renki wakes up, he likes to be carried and I'm not going to say no, so I've been going on no sleep for a while, like when I was running from the demons except I don't even get naps.

I rubbed my eyes while Renki held onto me from his place on my back. Sesshomaru was of course walking up front first, then Jaken and Rin on Ahun, and then I was in the back with Renki. I don't know how long we've been traveling with them now, but it feels like two centuries now. It has been better since I've been at least able to talk about Inuyasha. Turns out Renki wants to talk about him even when I get very few chances to sleep. I've been humoring him but I'm getting crabbier and crabbier.

Sesshomaru came to a stop and we all stumbled behind him.

"What is it my lord?" Jaken asked.

"There are many people on this mountain."

My tired eyes grew. "Like Inuyasha and the others?!"

"That I am not certain. There is a woman not far from here."

I rose an eyebrow.

"Her attentions aren't for us, not all of us anyway. With the way she's moving, she's looking for someone."

Why do I have a bad feeling that it's-

Sesshomaru's sword flashed in front of my face and an arrow collided into it. I jumped back and Renki nearly fell off of my back.

"What the?!" I screamed. I censored myself at the sake of Rin and Renki. I don't want to be the reason they get messed up. But someone just tried to shoot me in the bloody face! I faced the trees and took out my sharp little fan. "Hey! Whoever tried to do that, quite being a coward and take me on face to face! Coward!"

I saw Kikyou step out of the shadows. "I am no coward."

I glared at her and slipped Renki off of my back. "What's your problem?! Why did you try and shoot me?!"

"I have been informed by Inuyasha, multiple times, that things between him and I are over because of you."

"Oh god," I groaned, "not this crap again."

She knocked another arrow and shot at me again. I lifted up my fan and it smacked into it. This reminded me of my fight with Kagome. If I want to win though, it has to be hand to hand combat. I don't need a fight right now though.

"Watch it will ya! I don't want to fight with you!"

"Let me shoot you. Then it won't be a fight."

I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose. I was jealous once, when I thought Inuyasha was torn between Kagome and Kikyou, and I wasn't this bad. Or I don't think I was. I hope not anyway.

"You said that Inuyasha told you this, where is he?" I asked, trying to swerve her away from the subject.

"Like I'll tell you!" she shot another arrow but I sliced it effortlessly.

"Will you knock it off already! You'll hurt someone else before you hurt me! Get over it will you and tell me where Inuyasha is!"

"Over my dead body!"

"You're already dead you stupid zombie! Renki, you stay here, I need to take care of this female dog." A female dog being a bitch, but wasn't going to say that out loud.

I rolled up my sleeves and cut up every arrow she shot at me. I got closer to her and I saw the frustration seep into her features. "Take a hit, damn you!" She reached back for another arrow but found nothing.

"Good, now hopefully we can speak rationally like normal-." I quickly ducked while she swung her bow at me. "Kikyou! Calm down!"

"You have made Inuyasha betray me!"

I frowned at her. "What did he tell you exactly?"

"You don't need to know, like how you don't need to know where he is!" she shouted at me.

I rubbed the inside of my ears because of her loudness. Why must Inuyasha have so many girls I have to take care of. This should be his bloody job. This is exhausting. Or it might be because I'm so tired.

"Look Kikyou, I am not in the best of moods today and I'm sure you're truly broken up about this, but I need to find Inuyasha for his and the other's safety." Princess Akki was after the shikon jewel shards, and we have nearly the full jewel, as soon as any of those stray demons sense that they're all going to be in huge trouble! This, I just realized. "You have to tell me before something bad happens!"

She glanced up the mountain and narrowed her dark brown eyes. "I don't have time to bother with you. There is a great evil presence at the top of this mountain, and it keeps getting stronger and stronger."

"You started fighting with me! You're the one that started the time wasting!" I growled, seriously irritated.

"Don't think this is over Midori," she warned before walking away.

I stuck my tongue out at her. What a _bitch_! But I need to find Inuyasha and the group before the stray demons or Princess Akki does first. And Kikyou is no help, so I better hurry. I sighed, rubbed my eyes, then ran back to Sesshomaru, Jaken, Rin, and Renki.

I picked him up and said, "It's about time we find that hero of yours."


	11. Went Right Past Us

**So Midori had a brush in with Kikyou and she was not happy about Inuyasha picking Midori over her. There was a bit of fighting, noting too serious. Just Kikyou being a heartless zombie again. Sorry, I shouldn't be bringing my bias into this. Can't help it sometimes. But now Midori knows she has to find the group soon.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Inuyasha, I would be the luckiest person in the world, but I'm not. So I don't own Inuyasha =[**

**Chapter 10: Went Right Past Us**

I flipped my eyes open, realizing I fell asleep. I sat up and found myself on Ahun. Since I sat up so suddenly, my head pulsated and spun.

"Midori, you're awake!" Renki announced happily, walking next to Ahun.

I put my hand on my forehead and winced when I touched the bump. "_Ow_, what the heck happened?"

"Right after you told me 'It's about time we find that hero of yours' you passed out cold and knocked yourself on the head," he explained. "You slept more than a day straight!"

My eyes grew. "Have any stray demons gone down to mountain?!"

"Yeah, this morning a huge pack headed down that way," Rin replied, walking next to Jaken and Renki.

"Why didn't you stop them?!" I yelled at Sesshomaru.

"They had no intention of coming at us. I'm not going to pick a fight unless I must," he responded, without any emotion, as usual.

"How dare you yell at my Lord-!"

"Shut it Jaken!" I growled. "You're not stupid Sesshomaru; you know who they were after! And you just let them go right past us!"

"Instead of sitting there, shrieking like a banshee, how about you go find that half breed and his cohorts," he recommended, glaring at me. "That appears to be more effective than what you're doing now."

"You're right!" I jumped off of Ahun and wobbled a little on my bare feet. "Come on Renki! We have to go find them!"

He broke out of the group and smiled at me. "Are we going to help Inuyasha out?"

"I sure hope he doesn't need any help." I called as we started to run down the mountain, "Thank you for helping us Lord Sesshomaru!"

Renki used his nose to follow the scent of the stray demons, down the mountain. I didn't ask him anything like if there was a smell of human blood, even though I really wanted to know, because he was young and wasn't the best tracker. He needed to put all his effort into concentrating on following the scent.

I ran as fast as I could to keep up with him and I was so happy I was in good shape, because if I even slowed down to rest for a moment, Renki would be out of sight in no time. I would be lost and alone again.

What if I'm too late to help? What if everyone was killed? What if they all perished because I wasn't there? I might not be a huge help but I still could have made a difference! Why did I fall in that river?!

I would be yelling my head off, calling to them, but I won't be much help if I'm dead. Demons could be following us and waiting for us to reveal ourselves.

I shook my head. I need to work on freaking out less. They're just a bunch of wimpy demons, they can all handle it…I still have a bad feeling though.

Why couldn't Kikyou just work with me and tell me where they were? Cold hearted clay bitch. If she actually cared about Inuyasha, she would have told me where he was. Just proves that she's selfish. But she must have been pretty angry if I got her to break that cold façade of hers. I still want to know what he said to her, that would make her so pissed off. I hope I get the chance to ask him.

"Midori," Renki called from not too far ahead of me. He was running slower since he was trying to track. "I think they're right up ahead, about a mile."

"Any good or bad signs?" I asked frantically.

"I can't really tell, sorry," he apologized, looking back at me.

"It's fine Renki, we'll know soon enough." My stomach tightened as I said that. I felt like I was drowning in my nervousness. I just kept repeating to myself, "Please be okay" over and over again.

As we got closer, I smelt a scent I was all to use to, dead demon bodies. I heard fighting a head but it sounded like just two demons fighting over food. As soon as they saw us, they attacked but I easily took them out with my fan. Renki held his sleeve in front of his face as he ran; I can't imagine that he's use to this sort of smell, unlike Inuyasha.

That mile was the longest mile of my whole entire life. It felt like I wasn't getting as I jumped over the demon carcasses scattered everywhere, including in the trees. It was disgusting but, as I said, I'm use to it. I'm just so ready to be back with the group, if they're still there.

"I wouldn't have let those demons go by Midori, but I didn't know that they were going after Inuyasha," Renki mentioned, looking around the gory area. It's awful that someone at his age has seen something like this. "And Lord Sesshomaru freaks me out, even if he is my hero's step brother."

"He freaks everyone out, it's something he does." I looked around and then spotted a cave in the face of the mountain. As soon as I saw it, it started to downpour like crazy. The rain flew in at an angle and it nearly felt like hale.

Within seconds we were both drenched. "Come on Renki, to that cave!" I called over the sound of the storm.

He nodded and took my hand. We ran over to the shelter and noticed the light inside. Before I could fully process this, we went inside and saw _everyone_ around the fire sleeping. I gasped and dropped Renki's hand in shock.


	12. Catch Up

**Midori and Renki found the group! =D It's about time, right? *giggle* Just so happy is all. I'm all smiles right now! Ha!**

**Disclaimer: Inuyasha. Not mine.**

**Chapter 11: Catch Up**

I stood there for a moment but then Inuyasha woke up and sniffed the air. He opened his eyes and looked at us standing at the opening of the cave, cold and wet.

"Midori?" he mumbled, not believing his own eyes.

I smiled with tears starting to blur my vision. I ran over to him as he got up then jumped into his arms. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on for dear life. He lost his balance for a second but didn't wait to hug me right back.

"I can't believe I found you! I'm so happy you're alive! You're all alive," I whimpered. I didn't want to wake the others up but I couldn't contain myself.

He squeezed me, even though I was really soaked, right down to the bone. "I was so worried about you! You idiot, what happened?!"

I rubbed my eyes then remembered Renki. I looked back and he stood there with huge golden eyes. I cleared the lump in my throat. "It doesn't matter right now. Inuyasha, this is Renki, be nice."

He glanced around me. "Renki is it?"

He nodded slowly and moved a bit closer. "Inuyasha. Knows. My. _Name_."

Inuyasha put his arm around my shoulder protectively. "Did you help Midori find me?" He nodded again and moved a bit closer. "Well then I owe ya kid. She has a knack of getting lost apparently."

I rolled my eyes but I was concerned about the little guy. He looked paler and was wobbling a bit. "You okay Renki?" I asked.

"Inuyasha…owes me. You're my hero! I-It's a pleasure to meet you!" Then he toppled over and fainted.

We hurried over to him to make sure he was okay.

"What's wrong with him?" he questioned.

"He looks up to you like a god. His obsession with you is the only thing I was able to use to get him off of Princess Akki's side."

"Princess Akki?" He looked at me. "Did you meet her?" I nodded. "And you got away?" I nodded again. "First you escape Naraku's castle and now this? Are you some escape artist or something?"

"It wasn't that difficult, just jumped into the river." I pat the top of Renki's black hair. "He's a hanyou like you, ya know."

"Yeah, I could smell it on him. I also smell Sesshomaru all over the two of you. So you ran into him?"

"We sort of traveled with him for a while, to make sure we stayed safe from those demons." His eyes grew. "He was dreadfully boring. The only fun I had was arguing with Jaken. And…speaking of fights, I also ran into Kikyou, tried to kill me actually."

"Aw shit," he groaned, sitting up against a wall of the cave. "I told her to leave you alone."

"What _did_ you tell her exactly?" I wondered, sitting next to him. "She seemed awfully upset with what you said."

"Eh? You want to know?"

"Of course. A chick attacked me over what you said to her."

"Well…I could have chosen my words better. But she really overreacted!"I raised an eyebrow. "I said that well," he hesitated and his face got red, "you were the only one I loved and there was no changing that."

I smiled and cuddled up next to him. "So you got a little sappy huh? I missed really bad Inuyasha."

"And you scared the living hell outta me!" he whispered. "When we got attacked yesterday by all those demons I could hardly concentrate because I literally had no idea where you were!"

"Did you get hurt?!"

"Did _I_ get hurt?! Did _you_ get hurt?!" he echoed me.

"I'm fine; I'm more concerned about _you_." I sat up and stared at him. "Any new injuries I should know about?"

His white ears twitched. He didn't say anything but revealed his stomach. Bandages were wrapped around his entire torso but there was a thick line of blood stain going from his left side to his back. "It don't hurt or anything," he stated, pulling his shirt back down.

I didn't realize that my saw was sagging. I quickly shut my mouth. (It was not open because I saw skin, by him getting hurt like that) "What about everyone else? Are they hurt too?"

He slowly nodded and looked at them sleeping around the fire. "It was a hard battle. Everyone, even Shippo got hurt a little, but it's nothing serious. This Princess Akki bitch is going down."

I tightened my hands into fists. She hurt my friends, she hurt my love, and she killed off my village?! "I'm going to kill her as inhumanly as I can and send her straight to hell for all that she's done," I growled, glaring down at the ground.

"Midori? What don't I know?"

I locked my eyes with him. "S-She's the one who sent those demons to attack our village. She stole their eyes." I shivered at the thought of the eyeless demons on the ceiling of her cave. Made me look up just to make sure they weren't here either. "They might not be nice people, but that doesn't mean that they deserved to die like that."

He was quiet for a few seconds, staring at me. "She did that?" I didn't have to answer that, I just ran my fingers through my long hair and looked away. "That-That bitch is dead. I thought you were dead because of her."

"I'll be more than happy to end her life myself." Inuyasha pulled me over onto his lap and held onto me. "I don't think everyone else should come with."

"They're hurt, of course they shouldn't come."

"I'm talking about you too Inuyasha."

"…What?! Are you stupid?! You can't go alone!"

"You're hurt too! If anything else happens to you…I'll have help. Sesshomaru and…Kikyou are out to get rid of her too and neither of them are hurt."

"You're not leaving me again." He took my chin and angled my face for him to easily lean down and kiss me. I wanted to shove him away and get my point across, but I turned into jelly. "Dummy," he murmured against my lips before kissing me again. I grabbed his necklace and pulled him even closer. I've been waiting to do this again.

"You're the dummy," I laughed between breaths. I went back to kissing him as the rain continued to pour down outside.


	13. Still Raining

**It's all back to normal, Midori is back with the group and Renki has joined them. Everyone is caught up with what's happened lately.**

**Disclaimer: Do not own Inuyasha.**

**Chapter 12: Still Raining**

I woke up blissfully, curled up and warm in Inuyasha's arms. I took a deep breath and yawned before opening my eyes. When I did, Renki was sitting at our feet, staring at the man I was cuddled up with.

"Renki!" I gasped, jumping out of my skin. "Y-You're awake."

"Uh huh. I was waiting for Inuyasha to wake up but you got up first."

I glanced up at Inuyasha, he _was_ sleeping. That's really weird. He must be exhausted from all the fighting and his injury. I quickly gave him a kiss on the cheek before untangling myself from him.

Renki and I stood at the entrance of the cave and stared out into the storm outside. It must have rained all night. "It's going to be hard to find food in this weather," I murmured, making sure to stay quiet while everyone slept.

"Looks like we're out of firewood too," he mentioned.

"That's not going to be good when night comes again." I bit the inside of my cheek and said, "How was that little nap you had yesterday?"

He shuddered. "I still can't believe it. I'm sharing a cave with the most powerful hanyou ever!"

If only Inuyasha was up to hear _this_. His head doesn't need to get any bigger. "I'm glad you're happy." I messed up the top of his hair. "We need to find food and firewood, want to come with me?"

He glanced back to his hero. "I'm going to help again? He sure owes me a lot," he smiled. "I'll get the wood."

I nodded, knowing I had to find food, then we ran out into the thunder and lightning show.

"Man alive, this thing is heavy," I huffed, walking with a boar demon on my back, freshly killed. I had thought about scavenging in the remains of the dead youkai scattered everywhere, but then remembered that they've been dead for two days. Also watered out by all the rain. So I just shook a few trees, got some attention by the boar demons on my back, then sliced it's neck so it would bleed out.

It was still raining but it wasn't as hard as yesterday. The thunder is beginning to fade and I haven't noticed lightning for a while now.

I made it back to the cave and everyone was awake now. Renki was back and was slicing off the wet parts of the logs, then adding the dry part to the fire. He and Inuyasha were the first ones to notice me coming back.

"Thanks a lot for telling me you went somewhere," he grumbled as I dropped the boar by the fire.

"You were sleeping so soundly I couldn't wake you up _dear_. Hi guys," I greeted the rest of them.

"Glad to see you back and safe Lady Midori," Miroku said warmly. His arm was wrapped up very tightly.

Sango smiled at me with Kirara in her lap. "I'm so happy you're okay, we were worried sick about you." Her ankle and wrist were bandaged up.

"No kidding! I was so worried," Kagome exclaimed. She had huge claw marks on her legs. Shippo, who had his leg bandaged up, was still asleep in her lap.

I was sick to my stomach. They were all hurt and I come back here with nothing more than a few new scars. "Sorry I worried you all. Are you guys okay?"

They all nodded and assured me they were fine. The subject quickly turned to the boar I just brought back, which made me that much more nervous. I sat down while Inuyasha skinned the boar. Renki sat in between us and stared at him nonstop once he cut up all the wood. We had plenty to get us through the night. That's good since we are not going anywhere tonight, and hopefully not tomorrow, or the next day. Or we better not be.

"So you carried that big thing all the way here in the rain?" Kagome questioned, not looking at it while it got skinned and cut apart. "Hopefully you don't get sick Midori."

"I'm sure I'll be perfectly fine, it was just heavy is all." You guys should be more concerned about yourselves. They all seemed so tired, almost completely exhausted, and I can't imagine how bad they were after the fight. "Hopefully it's enough to feed all of us."

"It'll be more than enough," Sango assured me. "Now, tell us about Princess Akki. Inuyasha and your friend Renki told us some of it."

"Oh yes, we should know exactly what we're going up against," Miroku agreed. "Did she seem threatening?"

"Well since she had a bunch of demons without eyes stuck to the ceiling of where she lived, yes, you could say she was a bit threatening."

"Was she good looking?" he wondered. Sango glared at him, but didn't knock him over the head since her wrist was injured and her other hand wasn't strong enough to do the damage she wanted. "I'm joking," he laughed.

I grinned a little and continued. "She has a power that, when she's angry, she turns into a full grown cougar youkai woman, but when she's not threatened or mad she's a small girl," I explained. "Right Renki?"

He nodded. "She has a power to steal the eyes of anything and when she eats them, she gets stronger and learns from their life and death. If she reads your soul, your eyes belong to her."

I froze. "What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well she can't control what you see but…I actually don't really know how it works. Who ever had their soul peered into by her, never live to tell the tale."

I gulped, she looked into my soul, can she control _my_ eyes? I felt sick again. My stomach felt weird.

"How much of the jewel do you guys have?" I questioned. "Must be nearly the whole thing if she sent all these demons at you."

"We have all of it except for the one Kohaku has and the two Koga has," Sango replied. "Kagome has been healing Kohaku everyday she could, so soon enough he won't have to rely on the shard. That leaves Koga."

"I'll happily rip those out of his legs myself," Inuyasha smirked. "Maybe it will be good if he comes to this mountain."

"We might need him though," Miroku reminded him. "Who knows how many demons Princess Akki still had on her side."

"Tons," Renki scoffed.

"What?"

"_Tons_," he repeated. "What you guys got a taste of was only a small percent of her army. Good monk, take it from me, you haven't seen _nothing_ from her highness."


	14. In the Cave

**So it's business as usual with the group. That's all the really happened. Short recap. Now I'm just wasting space.**

**Disclaimer: As I've been saying for a while now, I don't own Inuyasha or any form of it.**

**Chapter 13: In the Cave**

"-up, Midori. Come on, wake up."

I groaned and reluctantly opened my eyes. I was leaning up against Inuyasha, like how I fell asleep last night.

"Were you having a nightmare?" he whispered.

I lifted my head and looked at him tiredly in the darkness. "I don't remember. Did it seem like I was?"

"Yeah," he whipped a tear off of my cheek, that I didn't even know was there. "You were saying that Princess Akki had your eyes."

Aw damn. "She is a little freaky." I leaned back onto him and noticed it was still dark. "Are there youkai out there right now?"

"A lot. I don't think they're trying to pick a fight with us though."

"It's a little scary," I murmured, mostly to myself.

"What is?"

"That she has the power to kill us all right now but is keeping us alive for some reason. It's eerie, like something is going to happen."

"Nothing bad is going to happen, okay?" I was quiet. "_Okay_?"

"She could hear us right now," I muttered, looking out of the cave. "I wonder if Kikyou and Sesshomaru are still alive."

"They're still alive and fine. Stop thinking like that."

"Sorry. But maybe we've bitten off more than we can chew this time. She's got a whole _army_ behind her."

He had nothing he could say back to that except, "We can't just give up now. Akki knows we have the jewel and she'll send demons after us, destroying every village we go to. We have to finish this."

"But we could get killed."

There was another drag of silence. "If we run, it won't be any different except other people are getting killed too. We can't have other villagers get attacked."

"Of course not, I don't want to pull any villagers into this. I want Princess Akki to stop the attacks all together but we won't be much help if we all get killed."

"Maybe not, but when we win-."

"_If_ we win," I corrected.

"-then we'll forever be idolized as those who exterminated the famous Princess Akki that terrorized the land for hundreds of years."

The fame will be ridiculous. The parties will be endless. But the problem is I don't know if we'll live long enough to make it to the cushy aftermath.

"What are we going to do when this is all over?" I muttered.

"I don't know, go after Koga probably."

"No, I mean after all of this is over. Princess Akki. The Shikon Jewel. All of it." I glanced up at me and he stared back down. "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know…what do you wanna do?"

"I don't know, what do you wanna do?" I echoed, smiling a little.

"I don't know, what do you wanna do?"

"I don't know, what do _you_ wanna do?"

"I don't know, maybe settle down with you," he finally said.

"…Really?"

"Well yeah, it was going to happen eventually. Might as well happen after this whole this is over. So…do you want to get married?"

My eyes grew. "You mean it?"

"I-If you think it's too early then-," he stammered.

"No, no, no, I would love to!" I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him all over his face. I kept on repeating, "Oh I love you so much" over and over again.

"Midori," he laughed, "you're going to wake people up. Aw screw it." He pushed me back a little then locked his lips with mine. "I love you too," he whispered in a husky voice before kissing me again.

"Is it just me or has Inuyasha been more intimate lately," Sango observed while we sat around the fire. All the boys were out of the cave, off doing something I'm sure they told us but I could not remember. I've been in my own world all morning.

"Oh, has he?" I smirked. "I haven't noticed."

"Really? Seemed pretty apparent last night," Kagome smirked. "I woke up and saw the two of you."

"How much didn't you hear?" I questioned, blush burning on my cheeks.

"I didn't hear anything, and I couldn't be more glad that I didn't."

I'm not ready to tell them that we're engaged _quite_ yet. "We just missed each other is all."

"You have a certain glow about you…your not pregnant are you?" Sango inquired suspiciously.

"Of course not!" I exclaimed. "We're not even married yet."

"That means nothing. But you've been super happy all day."

I found myself twirling the end of my hair, I guess I was nervous. Once Kagome and Sango want to figure something out, it gets done and gets done quickly. They're relentless, these girls.

"So it's weird for me to be in a good mood?"

"It is when we're on a demon infested mountain with hardly enough food, water, and fire wood," Kagome mentioned.

"True, but I went without seeing Inuyasha for weeks and…oh screw it. We're engaged," I gave up.

They both gasped. "_Really_?!"

I nodded, slightly reluctant. "Yup, it sort of happened last night."

"Was it romantic?" Sango asked.

"Did he pledge his eternal love to you?"

"Did he say he couldn't stand being away from you any longer?"

They went back and forth like this for a little while before I lost track of everything. "Guys, guys, remember who you're talking about. Inuyasha doesn't do that sort of gushy stuff. He just asked me if I wanted to get married. I said yes, and well, Kagome you caught the celebration. But you can't tell him I told you guys, I said I wouldn't bring it up. But it's better you know than think I'm pregnant or whatever else you were going to come up with."

"I'm so happy for you Midori," Sango enthused, coming over to me, despite her wrist and her ankle, and hugged me tightly. Kagome joined in and swung us back and forth.

I was glad I could forget about Princess Akki and her demons for a little while. But it wasn't too long after that, that I had to continue worrying.


	15. Strategy

**Midori is now fiancée to Inuyasha. =] It's official, they're going to get married after this whole thing, the whole Princess Akki and the Shikon Jewel. When or if they survive the whole thing with the princess.**

**Disclaimer: Like every other author on Fanfic, they don't own what they base their stories off of. So I do not own Inuyasha.**

**Chapter 14: Strategy**

"Ow, watch it will ya?" Inuyasha snapped. "You're pinching me Midori!"

"_Sorry_ but you asked me to check your wound and these bandages are tied on there pretty tight," I shot back. "Now sit still, I wouldn't have to pinch you if you didn't squirm so much!"

He sighed and crossed his arms. He quickly raised his arms again before I could order him to do so.

I finally got my fingernail under the last bandage then pulled it back. I found his muscles way more than distracting but I knew he was getting impatient. There was nothing left of his wound except a scar that was hardly noticeable.

"Looks like you're all healed up Inuyasha."

"_Finally_. That took way longer than I thought it was going to." He used a claw and sliced the bandages off. At first I looked off in a different direction in pure decency while he redressed but then I remember, I'm his fiancée, if I want to look at Inuyasha while half naked I damn will! I turned my head and stared at his…abdomen area. I blushed and turned away again. Holy _shit_! That's unfair! "Uh Midori, are you okay?" Inuyasha questioned.

"Fine!" I laughed loudly. "Absolutely _peachy_!"

He gave me a weird look. "Uh okay?" He turned his nose up and sniffed the air. His eyes narrowed and he grabbed tetsusaiga. "I swear to Kami," he growled.

"What is it?" I asked.

Kagome sighed. "It's ironic that he shows up right after you get your bandages off Inuyasha."

"What?" Sango and Miroku questioned at the same time. I got what they were talking about though.

"Kill me," I grumbled under my breath. Before I knew it, there was a rush of wind at the entrance of the cave then someone called my name.

"Midori? What are you doing here?" I turned my head slowly and saw Koga standing there smirking at me.

"What everyone else is doing on this mountain. And you told us about Princess Akki in the first place you idiot," Inuyasha responded, glaring at him. "Now scram."

Koga ran up to me, blowing my hair back and grabbed my hands. "This is a very dangerous place for you to be. That damn mutt didn't get you hurt did he?"

"She's perfectly fine you bastard! More than fine actually!"

"Whatever half breed," he scoffed.

"You don't even _know_ Koga," he chuckled evilly.

My eyes widened at him. "Hey, um what'cha doing Inuyasha?" I questioned. I took my hands back and leaned over. I yanked down his ear to my mouth. "Thought we weren't going to tell anyone," I whispered.

Koga stared at us weird. "What?"

"Aw screw it Midori, it's the only way to get this bastard off of your back. Koga, Midori and I are getting married. So back off!"

Miroku, Shippo, and Renki's eyes grew. "_What_?" Sango and Kagome just smiled because they already knew this.

"Huh?" Koga stared at us confused.

I smiled. "Yeah, we're engaged. So you seriously have to leave me the hell alone. Got it Koga?"

"Pft, yeah right. I thought you guys were always engaged. This doesn't mean _anything_ to me," he laughed.

"Wha?" Inuyasha gapped.

I sighed and pat his head. "It was worth a try. But everyone knows now, that's good right?"

He slowly looked over to the group and found all of them staring at us. I allowed giving my attention to Koga who was quite smug with himself. While they talked I got my shot in at him.

"You're a real idiot, you know that right?"

"Oh spitting fire are we? Well you're thinking about marrying the idiot himself," he mentioned, sitting down next to me.

"We _are_ going to get married, we're not _thinking_ about it."

"Oh yeah? What's the date for the ever so happy occasion?"

Crap, I can't tell him we were planning on taking his shards. We weren't going to do anything until everything was over. Whatever, I don't mind lying to him. "After we take care of Princess Akki."

"Hm," he chuckled. "I've heard stuff about her, don't think either of you will be in condition to do much of anything after fighting her and her army."

"Well you brought your pack with you right?"

"Not only my pack, all the ones I could get a hold of. Three more packs are coming. I thought I caught a whiff of your little group here and followed it to here. My pack is at the bottom of the mountain waiting for the other packs to arrive," he explained.

I blinked a few times. "That was…a very good idea Koga," I said, surprised that he could actually be a good leader. "As far as I know, the Priestess Kikyou and Lord Sesshomaru are on the mountain too."

"Hm so we have a bit over a hundred people on our side while there are thousands of demons on their side."

"They're all weak demons but I'm afraid that she's going to throw some children in there so we can't be as strong as we'd originally be. And there's the actual Princess to worry about."

I'm talking strategy with Koga. What the hell?

"The kids will be easy to round up, hopefully, but if there are as many demons as I can smell in this place, it's going to be hard to pick them out during battle."

"Then we have to take out Princess Akki first," Inuyasha brought up, joining the conversation. "They won't risk their lives trying to kill us if the one they're trying to protect is dead."

"That could happen or they would get super mad and continue to fight us," Miroku mentioned. "What do you think would happen, Renki?"

The small hanyou popped his head up, hearing his name. "Um it's sorta hard to tell. Some demons are more loyal than others. The other kids are very thankful to her for taking us in but the older demons just joined when she started being active in destruction again. They're not as loyal and once there was, it sounded like they were going to have a mutiny. So I don't think they'll stick around if she's dead."

"But the kids are the ones to worry about," Sango brought up. "I don't want to kill kids, none of us do, but if they're going to attack us it's either we kill them or they kill us."

I glanced at Renki and he stared at Inuyasha for the answers. I'm sure he didn't want to hurt the kids he's grown up with either. Then my eyes grew.

"Renki, how many of the kids are hanyou?" I wondered.

"Oh a good lot of them. The only ones that aren't are full demons that were abandoned," he replied. "Some of them call themselves hanyou anyway."

I smiled. "We'll convince them not to fight then."

"What?" Kagome questioned. "They might be kids Midori but they were brought up to fight for Princess Akki."

Renki caught on. "Yeah! They're all huge fans like me too! They wouldn't fight against Inuyasha or anyone who knows him!"

"What the hell are you guys _talking_ about?" Koga demanded.

"I've got a fan base apparently," Inuyasha clarified with a smug grin. "If all of them are like Renki, then I think we found a kink in Princess Akki's armor."


	16. Crowded

**Koga has joined in on the plan of attack. Now everyone knows about Midori and Inuyasha, too. Koga still doesn't care and is going to continue to pursue Midori -_- They also found a way to possibly, actually win the fight against Princess Akki. All of that happened in the last chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, or any of the other characters, besides Midori, but I wouldn't really have her if the series wasn't there. So in a way, I don't own my own character O.o**

**Chapter 15: Crowded**

Since Koga didn't want to head back to his pack right away, he decided to live with the rest of us in the cave. It was a good size cave, it really was, but as soon as Koga decided to "move in" it felt like I had inches of elbow room. Might have been that Inuyasha and Koga on both sides of me at all times.

Usually night was the time where Inuyasha I could be together doing…our own thing but now that Koga is here I can't even hold onto his hand because then Koga glares at Inuyasha, Inuyasha glares at Koga, then they want to fight.

But everyone started to get better and taking off their bandages. That made my day, knowing that everyone was okay. But I was still nervous about Princess Akki. At first I thought that she believed we were no longer on the mountain, so that's why we weren't getting attacked. I soon realized that was ridiculous. She wants a real fight. She's giving us time to get our hopes up and maybe get a fighting chance before she massacres us. Sometimes when I stare up at the top of the mountain for too long my vision blurs and tunnels. I blink and then it's back to normal. I want to believe that it's just my eyes being weird, but I know that Princess Akki is messing with me.

"Midori?" Renki yanked at my kimono. "What are you looking at?"

I flinched out of my thoughts and looked down at him. I was enjoying some time alone outside of the cave since Inuyasha and Koga got completely unbearable. They were arguing about something but I don't remember what. All the arguments are melting together now.

"Oh, hey Renki. Not looking at anything specifically. What are you doing out here?" I asked, rubbing my eyes. I had been looking at the top of the mountain again. "I thought you wanted to hang out with Shippo."

"I did but then Inuyasha and Koga started fighting again. Shippo wanted to watch so I just came out here. Why is he here if he's only going to bicker with Inuyasha and mess with you?" he complained.

"Because he loves to bicker with Inuyasha and mess with me," I responded, smirking a little. "But he's here to help so there's not much we can do about it. We can't force him to go back to his pack."

"I'm sure Inuyasha could, he could take out that wolf demon like he was a flea," he huffed, crossing his arms and furrowing his eyebrows. For a second there, he looked just like Inuyasha. Freaked me out a little bit.

I ruffled up his short black hair. "Sometimes you just have to grin and bear it, no matter how much you want to punch that certain person in the face."

He nodded, understanding me. He glanced up at the top of the mountain. "What are we waiting for? Why don't we just attack her and get it over with?"

"We're waiting for those other wolf packs to show up, just to make sure we'll be able to fight if we have to."

"Oh. Are Shippo and I going to fight?"

I hadn't thought of that. "I don't know. It's pretty dangerous."

"I know, but maybe it will be easier to convince those other kids if I were there," he pointed out.

"Renki!" Shippo called from the cave. "Where are you?"

"Oh, see ya later Midori," he waved before running off. "Think about what I said."

"I will." Once he was gone I whispered to myself, "That kid does _not_ talk like a five year old." I glanced back at the cave. I didn't hear any more fighting from inside and this concerned me. Wonder why it's so quiet.

I walked back and peeked my head inside. What I saw, explained completely why it got quiet. Inuyasha and Koga sat around the fire with a bowl of ramen in their hands. I released a deep breath.

"It safe?" I called over.

Kagome nodded and waved me back in. "Come on in Midori, the situation has been defused for now. But by the way they're eating, they'll be done in no time," she sighed. "I'm going to need more ramen."

I flicked the both of them in the ears. "Will you both stop arguing so much? You're giving us all headaches."

"But he started it!" Inuyasha exclaimed, his mouth full.

"Nuh uh! Stupid mutt you started it!" Koga coughed on the ramen in his mouth.

"Yeah," Inuyasha swallowed, "choke you smelly wolf."

"Stuff it hanyou."

I flicked the both of them in the ears again. "Get along or else neither of you will have any more ramen _or_ chips," I threatened. They both looked at me with big eyes. "I'm serious! This is not a time or place to argue this much!" I flipped out my fan and narrowed my eyes at them. "We all know I'm not afraid to use this."

They both nodded and I smiled sweetly.

I sat down next to Sango and shook my head. "I should have done that _days_ ago," I murmured.

She pat my back. "Thank you for doing it though."

"No problem. Sure feels like we're baby sitting them." I watched them while they glared at each other. "Hopefully Koga doesn't come around a lot after Inuyasha and I get married." I shivered, holy shit we're engaged. Still not use to it completely.

"Hopefully he gets the hint after you're _married_," Miroku scoffed.

"He sure didn't get it when he figured out that they were fiancées," Kagome chuckled. She was probably just happy it wasn't her that had to deal with this.

"Well thank you for giving them that ramen Kagome. How much food do you have left?" I asked.

She peeked into her backpack and bit her lips together. "Well…we've been doing good with demon meat right?"

Demon meat is all tough and tasteless. It's hard to cook and rotes quickly. "Yeah…we're fine with hunting."

"I wonder how much longer we have to stay in this cave," Sango wondered out loud. "I can't stand all this waiting."

"The feeling is mutual," Miroku agreed. "I don't think we've ever spend so much time in one place before."

"Makes me feel really uneasy," she muttered. "Like they're waiting for us to do something."

Kagome nodded. "I know right! I'm so glad I'm not the only one feeling that way. The suspense is suffocating me!"

"Might be all the people in the cave," I half way joked.

They all laughed at my kind-of joke. "Maybe it is," Kagome concurred.


	17. Our Own Army

**Last chapter was just a filler chapter. Midori handled the Koga/Inuyasha situation for the most part. I'd like to point out that it kills me to rip on Koga like this, I **_**love**_** Koga as a character just because he pisses off Inuyasha, and guess who's completely adorable when they're angry. ;D**

**Disclaimer: I still do not own Inuyasha, I'm not even working on it.**

**Chapter 16: Our Own Army**

I opened one eye in the darkness and listened. Sounded like everyone was asleep but I knew Inuyasha wasn't, as usual.

In his arms, I looked up at him and tapped on his cheek. "You awake?" I whispered quietly.

He opened up his eyes and looked down at me. "Now why are you still awake?"

"I wanted to talk to you but without everyone to hear in on it." I felt the lump in my throat growing. "You know what Renki said about Princess Akki stealing eyes and being able to control them?"

"Yeah, sure I know," he scoffed.

"Well…while I was fighting with her she pinned me and looked into my soul. It wasn't for a long time but it still happened," I admitted lowly. "I…can't prove that she's doing anything to my vision. I'm not completely sure but sometimes…" I couldn't finish because I didn't know how to describe it.

"You're joking right?"

I could see his gold eyes stare at me in the darkness. "I wish I was."

"Why didn't you tell me this earlier?!" he whispered.

"I didn't want you to worry about me. I just told you now because I shouldn't hide things from you."

"Midori, you can't fight! If you didn't tell me, you could have gotten killed out there!"

"No, I can still fight!"

He frowned then picked me up. I grabbed onto him in surprise. He ran outside, far enough away from the cave so we could speak normally. He set me down on my feet and didn't miss a beat.

"Are you _crazy_?! Who knows what could happen in the middle of the fight if she messes with your eyes! You're not going to fight!"

"Well I'm not going to just sit around! She killed our village! I want to avenge them! There's nothing you can do to make me stay in the cave!"

"I will do _anything_ to keep you safe! So I'll tie you to a rock with chains if I have to!" he threatened.

"I am not going to be left behind! I'm not going to leave your side again! That's the safest place I could be, right?!"

"I don't know if I'll be able to fight _and_ make sure you're safe if we're going to be fighting!"

"I can defend myself!"

"Not if you go blind or something!" I was quiet and lowered my head. I knew he was right, I didn't want to be a burden. He took my chin and tilted it so I looked at him. "I don't want to leave you behind either, I want to be there to protect you but I'm not going to loose you again."

"How am I supposed to know you're okay if I'm not there?"

"Just trust that we've made a good plan and if it does fall through for some reason, then we have a lot of people behind us to survive an attack. I'll handle Princess Akki myself, I'll avenge the village for the both of us."

I bit my lips together then hugged him. "Since when did you get common sense?" I chuckled.

He slowly hugged me back. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" he demanded, squeezing me tightly.

"You know exactly what I mean."

"Well you know what will never change about you?"

Your love for me? "What?"

"Your clumsiness with shoes on," he laughed.

"Wow, you are _so_ funny." I tried to hide my smile as I tried to get away from him but he just held onto me and growled playfully. "Inuyasha, we should go back to bed," I snickered while he continued to hug me.

"Oh you don't need sleep." He released his arms around me and put his hands around my face. He pulled his mouth down to mine and I enjoyed the high caused by it. Shivered rolled down my body to my toes and I got goose bumps on everywhere, even my face. "Still want go to bed?" he asked.

"Depends," I leaned back and looked up at him, "where did this little mood come from?"

"Just know we won't have too many more moments like this before the fight." He cleared his voice. "But I'm not into gushy stuff, we both know that right?"

"Of course." I pecked him on the lips and smiled. "You were never that way and I like it. I'm not marrying some mushy hopeless romantic."

He smiled and leaned down to kiss me again, but it was interrupted by someone calling my name.

"Lady Midori?"

I jumped back in surprise and spotted a boy in the early morning light. "Kohaku? What are you doing here?"

He smiled and people came up behind him. "We heard about the fight, so we decided to help."

I noticed Kagura and Kanna come up. I haven't seen them in forever! I looked at Inuyasha and he looked down at me.

"This is good, this is very good," I laughed in disbelief. I waved at them. "Hi Kagura, hi Kanna!"

They didn't say anything back, but it didn't bother me. They were like that. "Sango is inside the cave over there, sleeping."

"Oh thanks, I was also supposed to tell Koga that the other demon tribes are here," he added.

"Really? How many of them are there?"

"A _lot_. They said that three other wolf demon packs that joined on the way. They were big packs too."

I blinked a few times. "Really?"

He nodded. "They're all working their way here, but there's a lot of them so it might take a while." Kagura and Kanna followed him into the cave and we just stared after them.

"I think that if we have to fight, we'll win," Inuyasha observed.

"I wonder how Kohaku got them here."

"Who cares, we have two other very powerful demons on our side against weak demons, plus three big wolf demon tribes." He put his hands on my shoulders. "We're actually going to win this."

I got excited. Maybe we will actually win this! Everyone might actually live through this too! But then my mood was killed. She was waiting for us to get stronger though. She has some trick up her sleeve. No one knows what it is, so there's no way we can be prepared for it. It suddenly got colder.


	18. Preparation

**The army is together! So it's settled then. That's what happened in the last chapter. Kagura and Kanna joined, adding on more wolf tribes, so the fight can begin.**

**Disclaimer: Ya'll know I don't own Inuyasha =]**

**Chapter 17: Preparation**

Since I wasn't joining in on the fight, I had to run around and help people get ready. I helped sharpen a few swords, filled some people in on the plan, and avoided Koga as much as possible. I tried to spend as much time with group but I wanted to be helpful.

I tried not to get irritated by little things that stuck out to me in our army. Like the age of some of them. It already bothered me about Kohaku, Renki, and Shippo fighting, but there were other kids that were in it too. I had to keep reminding myself that their eyes weren't going to just stop working at any time.

What I would do to fight Princess Akki, with or without having her effecting me vision. I don't think even a promise to the universe with help me out this time.

"Hey Midori," Sango took my shoulder as I walked, "Why do you look so angry? Did Koga try some funny business?"

She got me to crack a smile. "Oh hey Sango, just frustrated I can't go," I grumbled.

"It'll be safer for you and Inuyasha," she reminded me.

"I know." I stopped walking and gave her a hug. "Be safe and…watch Renki will you? He's still a little kid."

She nodded and pat my back. "We'll be fine, don't worry too much."

"Oh there's always something to worry about with me." I leaned back and started walking again. "Everyone has to watch Kagome too; she's got the shards and all."

"That reminds me." She opened her hand to me and the little jar with a mostly together, pale pink jewel was inside. "Since you're going to be the farthest away from Princess Akki and her demons, Kagome thought you should hold onto it."

I carefully picked it up and examined it. I never really had a close look at the object that's caused this whole mess. "Is she sure she can just hand this off to anybody?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "You'll have to ask her, I don't know if there are really rules to something like this. I doubt she knows either though."

"True. What about us, goes with regulation anyway?" I smirked. "Is it…wrong to want to say good bye to everyone?"

She shook her head. "We can't control what's going to happen; I don't think it's entirely a bad idea. But stop worrying Midori, you're making _me_ worry."

"Sorry," I laughed, scratching the back of my head. "I just can't help it. I better find Inuyasha and make sure he's ready. Do you know where he is?"

She gestured off to the left. "Somewhere by the entrance."

"Thanks," I nodded, giving her one more, quick hug before running off. I fell a few times because I was forced to have shoes on. I didn't want to accidently step on a sword, or an arrow, or any other weapon they have in here so I'm forced to wear damn shoes again.

I stumbled one last time but grabbed onto Inuyasha while he stared outside. "Midori," he helped me up, "why are you running around? You know you can't walk for shit with those things on."

"I wanted to see you before everyone left! Is that a crime? What are you doing over here anyway?"

He crossed his arms and his ears twitched in irritation. Still adorable, might I add. "Smells too much like wolf in there."

"Oh," I nodded and stood next to him with my hands behind my back.

I stared out of the cave too. The sun was starting to go down and this caused the sky to be bright orange, red, and yellow with a bit of pink. We just stood there next to each other, enjoying the last moments we would have before them running off. I loved being able to focus on the quiet and not be interrupted by anything, including my own bothersome thoughts. I held onto his hand tightly and watched the birds fly away from the mountain. They must know something is about to happen.

"Inuyasha?" We both turned around and one of Koga's allies were speaking to us. "Koga says that everyone is ready to go. We're going to start moving out." As he said that, wolves and people rushed out of the cave and moved past us. By the speed they were going, they were all cleared out in no time. Sango, Miroku, Kagome, Renki, and Shippo waved at me while they rode out on Kirara.

"Hurry up or else you're going to miss it," Shippo called back.

"You won't _dare_ start anything without me!" he yelled. Once they were out of ear shot he turned back to me. I had never heard him talk so fast in my life. "Be careful, if demons somehow get past us and get down here I'll come running. You don't have to worry about anything except for yourself. Stay in the cave. Stay hidden. Stay out of trouble. Only fight if you have to."

I nodded to all of that. "I will, I promise. Just _please_ be careful okay?"

"Since when am I not careful?" he scoffed. I gave him a weird look. "Okay…I take that back. But everything will be _fine_."

I had to believe him at this point. He had to go and there wasn't a lot of time before he'd have to leave me again. I held out my arms and he eagerly gave me a hug. He kissed my cheek and hugged me again.

"Keep Tetsusaiga close and do what you have to do," I whispered. We pulled away from each other and tried to smile. He rubbed the top of my head and held up his index finger as he ran off after everyone.

He was signing that I was his number one.

I grinned and stood there for a few seconds. I let out a deep breath and looked around the completely empty cave. Was it always this big and…bare?

I went over to the back wall of the cave and sat down in the shadow so no one from outside could see me. I took off the damn shoes and softly put them down beside me. I didn't dare start a fire, where demons could be lured in by the light. I wasn't going to be looking forward to tonight, being cold and alone. I held onto my fan tightly in my hands.

I was starting to nod off once it got dark out but I was pulled out of it with the sound of loud _BOOM_s coming from somewhere in the wall behind me. I flinched and looked around in a panic.

"What the hell was that?"

Suddenly the wall opened up behind me and I fell backwards. I landed on my back and when I looked up, two demons looked down and me, grabbed onto me, and pulled me into the darkness behind the cave wall.

I got out half a scream before one of them slapped their hand onto my mouth and the cave wall shut.


	19. Not So Welcoming

**So Inuyasha, the rest of the group, Kohaku and who he brought, Koga and his allies are off to either war or peace. Depends on how Inuyasha handles Princess Akki. Oh right, Midori got captured too. No big deal.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Inuyasha and stuff. Well I have stuff, but I don't own Inuyasha, like I said in the first sentence. But I repeated again. For some reason. O.o**

**Chapter 18: Not so Welcoming**

I got thrown into a room and skidded on my arm on the rocky surface. I sat up quickly and ripped out my fan.

"Why hello Midori, long time no see," a small voice giggled.

I whipped my head around and the young version on Princess Akki stood over me with my hands on her hips. She grinned widely.

"I sense a hanyou heading up the mountain, I wonder who that is," she giggled. I brought my fan up to slice her but she quickly seized my wrist in a blink of an eyes. "Oh calm down, currently he's fighting with a double I created. I've distracted his brother with another double as well."

She kicked me in the shoulder and this sent me flying back into a corner of her cave. I slammed my head against the wall and nearly dropped my fan.

"That's what you get for running away from me," she laughed joyfully at my pain. "Now, I don't really feel like fighting you or the Shikon Jewel so I'll let you go if you hand it over now."

Oh shit! The jewel! I felt it hanging from the chain around my neck. I forgot about it! "What makes you think I'm stupid enough to do that?" I hissed, slowly getting back onto my feet. I winced at the throbbing in my head.

"I just thought you valued your life." I felt her punch me in the ribs and swept my legs before I could even remotely react. I fell onto my side and gasped at the ribs breaking inside. "I'll take it from your dead, lifeless body then."

I growled at her, "I'm tired of being kidnapped by people like you! All because of this damn jewel!"

"Just hand it over then," she smiled sweetly. Her short orange gold hair hung slightly in her face. Her bright orange eyes haunted me.

"And have you kill off everyone, I don't think so!" I sliced upwards. She leaned back quickly but I still cut off a large chunk of hair. A roll of pain vibrated from my ribs and I wrapped my arm around it.

Princess Akki shifted into her older self. "You damned wench!" she shrieked. She clawed me across the face then smacked me to the side with her tail. "How dare you!"

I touched my cheek and I felt blood. I struggled onto my knees. "All that over a lock of hair?" I laughed lowly and tried to find the river I escaped through the first time. I couldn't see that well, it was pretty fuzzy. "I think you're tense because you're nervous, _your highness_."

I saw anger, true burning anger flash in her eyes. I quickly leaned back as her claws swiped at my throat. I scrambled back and kicked up at her. She locked her hands on my ankle and twisted it too far throwing me across the cave. I slammed into the wall then fell onto the ground. I tried to move my leg but a shot of pain sunk in.

"Ouch. Okay, I got the message, don't be a smart ass." I coughed and tried to sit up, which was unsuccessful. My ribs ached, my head pounded, and my leg couldn't move. It got harder and harder to see. "You must understand my hate for you."

"Not really." She stood over me and kicked me in the side. "I killed off a village full of people you didn't like, and harassed the one you love. You should be _thanking_ me that I killed every single one of them painfully then extracted their eyes, sometimes while they were still alive."

My hands shook in anger. "They might not have been nice people to Inuyasha and me, but no one deserves to die like that! My parents almost perished because of you! _I_ almost perished because of you!" I yelled. "You deserve to die at the hands of everyone who's coming after you."

"Let's see if you're so tough without your sight!" she pinched her fingers together and that was the last thing I saw.

I blinked and rubbed my eyes but my eyes faded from shapes, to colors, to darkness. I can't see! This set in and I gasped in shock. I felt around the ground. "Y-You bitch! Give it back! Give me my sight back!" I ordered, not sounding very strong. My voice wavered and I was on the edge of tears.

She burst out laughing. "Pathetic! Didn't think it was going to be that easy to break you!" I got kicked in the ribs so hard that It sent me flying up in the air, where she clawed me against my other cheek and on my arms and legs. There was a sense of weightlessness before I landed on the ground again and rolled for a few feet. My ribs hurt so much I wanted to reach in through my skin and pull them out! I felt blood drip off of me. I searched in the darkness for _anything_ but it was completely dark. "Oh I'm sorry, was that too mean? I guess I'm just a big, jerk now aren't I?"

"B-Beat…ing the shit out of a blind human girl…doesn't exactly put you in the running for…person of the year," I huffed. I tried to at least get onto my knees but I couldn't move without something hurting. I stayed lying on the ground, not knowing where I was in her cave or where she was right now. I couldn't tell what she was going to do next to me. "Are you just going…to leave me here?"

"Shut up!" she hissed. I closed my eyes but tried to stay conscious. "What the hell is that sound?"

I tried to listen and I heard a rumbling coming from somewhere. Then there was a _BOOM_ like when those demons opened the wall, but I felt rocks hit me. I blinked my eyes but continued to see the same darkness.

"Midori!" I would have recognized that voice anywhere! I tried to sit up again but I just winced and fell onto my back. "Don't worry, I'll be-!"

"Hold it half breed!" Princess Akki ordered. "I believe you're here for me. I've been waiting for a fight, and I expect a big one."

I heard him start to growl. "Oh you're going to get a damn fight! You're going to get a damn good one! Are you okay? Tell me you're okay Midori!" I heard her take one step closer to me and he snapped, "Stay away from her!"

"I can do whatever I want." She grabbed onto my hair. "For example, if I want to kill her, I'll kill her. If I want to kill off everyone in your 'army' I'll do it. I am the princess; I will do as I please."

"I'm here to change that! Leave her the hell alone! As you said, this is a fight between you and me!"


	20. Demon Inside

**After Midori got the shit beat out of her and blinded, Inuyasha showed up and is **_**not**_** happy. Princess Akki is expecting a fight, and something no one expected is going to happen. No one was prepared for this to happen.**

**Disclaimer: I'm going to keep this simple. I don't own Inuyasha. Yup, it's that easy.**

**Chapter 19: Demon Inside**

"Bring it on hanyou," she chuckled, releasing my long hair from her grasp. "You'll feel my claws slice into your throat for threatening me."

"You killed our village, you hurt my friends, and you injured the one I love! Enjoy your last minutes of life _bitch_!" he shouted.

I heard them clash together. I wish I could see what was happening! I couldn't tell who was winning and who was losing! I tried to make any movement but even breathing hurt. The slightest movement would normally put tears in my eyes, but I was so focused in on the sounds of the fight. I had to know if Inuyasha needed help!

"You think you can just trot onto my mountain with the Shikon Jewel, and expect me not to try and take it?" she laughed joyfully. "Oh you lesser species are a sorry excuse for life, with your stupidity."

"I couldn't give a shit about what you were doing to people; I came here to get Midori back!" There was a large crash between them. "Obviously you're not as strong as you claim if you're looking for the jewel and you can't even kill off a half breed and his friends!"

"You think this is all my power? Ha! I'm spreading it out all over this mountain!"

"Prove it then!"

"Oh like I'd be stupid enough…you know what mutt? You want my full power, you got it!"

I blinked my eyes and I started to see colors. Shapes and detail slowly came back to me. Soon enough, I could see Inuyasha fighting with the elder version of Princess Akki.

My eyes grew as I saw her change. Her claws grew as long as daggers and her canines pointed. She grinned widely and swiped at him. Inuyasha deflected it with Tetsiaga and tried to shove her back.

I slowly sat up, despite the pain shooting everywhere, and I tried to focus on what I could do to help. I could smell the blood all over me, so I convinced myself it was someone else that was bleeding this much. I took my fan and whispered to it, "Help me finish this."

Then I saw the end of her tail form into a sharp point while they fought vigorously. It started to glow and I recognized it as poison. I opened my mouth to yell at him but nothing came out of my throat. Princess Akki glanced at me and smiled before turning back to battle. She had control of my voice too?! Oh, she's controlling the river and we have been drinking from it! Kami, I'm an idiot!

"What are you smiling about?!" Inuyasha growled, slashing Tetsiaga against her again.

"Oh nothing, I just see your demise in the near future."

"You're crazy if you think you can defeat me!"

"I have a few tricks up my sleeve, you little bastard!" Her tail twitched in anticipation and preparation.

Completely ignoring every limb that screamed in protest and ribs that cracked, and jumped in front of Inuyasha. As I threw my fan at her, I got sliced across my stomach with her poisonous tail. I landed back on the ground and that's when the pain sunk in. My body heated up and then became cold; this went back and forth as my injuries roared. I looked at the princess and my fan hung out of her throat. She screamed in pain and stumbled backwards.

Inuyasha dropped Tetsiaga and kneeled down to me. "Midori! Why did you do that?!"

I winced at the pain and shivered as my body got cold. I got my voice back. "There I go again, saving your ass," I laughed lowly. I stopped laughing when my stomach stung. He took me into his arms and held onto me. I felt so weak, I couldn't move anymore. "I met you the first time by saving you and now…"

"Don't talk like that! You're going to be fine! Don't you dare give up on me!" he ordered.

"I don't know Inuyasha," I pat his back and tried to breath evenly, "the cut was deep and the poison is spreading." My eyes watered a little and gulped. "We both know…"

"No!" He held me tighter. "Why would you be so stupid?! I could have handled myself! You were already hurt, why would you do something like that?!"

My body heated up and a bead of sweat rolled down my cheek, that and tears. "I would have done worse for you."

"I was supposed to protect you though!" He leaned back and I saw that he was crying. "We were supposed to get married and now you're saying that you might…you're going to be okay!"

My lip quivered as realization set in. "Everything hurts Inuyasha," I whimpered, burying my face into him. "I feel so weak and…the poison really hurts. I don't want to die!"

"You're not going to! I've gotta see the cut okay?" I nodded as he laid me back down and tears poured down my face. He pulled part of my kimono away so he could see my torso. I didn't dare look at it. I could feel him stiffen up and I knew it wasn't good. I could already feel my blood seeping through my kimono, it was bad. "I-It's okay Midori, I'll find Kagome and she'll heal you right up!" He glanced over at Princess Akki, bleeding in the corner and knew she wasn't going to be an issue. He was about to get up onto his feet to go fine her…but I knew I wasn't going to last that long, so I grabbed onto his sleeve.

"Please don't leave me Inuyasha," I cried. "I-I'm scared! Please don't leave!"

"But I need to get help for you, otherwise-."

I shook my head and took a hold of his hand with my bloody hand, even though my arms ached. "Stay with me," I shivered as my body got cold, "please?" I coughed and I tasted blood. "I don't want to be alone!"

He quickly sat back down and pulled me back into his arms. He wiped the tears off my cheeks even though he has his own rolling down his cheeks. I felt the life slowly slip through my fingers. I could feel the blood drain out of my face and my heart slowing down. I needed to say stuff! I can't stand this silence! I'm allowing our last moments together slip away from me!

"Inuyasha," I whispered lowly, "I want you to know that I love you."

"I know that," he muttered, wiping his eyes quickly.

"I hope you do, because I love you _so_ much. I'm glad the last thing I did was save you."

"Damn it Midori!" He put his face into the crook of my neck and I felt water seep through my kimono. "I still need you here! You have to pull through!"

I smiled to myself. "You're the best Inuyasha; you've always been able to handle yourself because you're the strongest person I know." I reached up and touched his cheek with my cold fingers. "You'll always be my number one."

I leaned up and he leaned down, and I spent my last breath kissing him with everything left in me.


	21. Not Ready

**So…Midori…died. Princess Akki cut her deep across the stomach and got injected with poison. This chapter is her on the other side. Sad =[**

**Disclaimer: Don't Own Inuyasha**

**Chapter 20: Not Ready**

I gasped and opened my eyes widely. My vision darted around as I tried to identify the area. One moment everything was blindingly white then a large wooden door appeared in front of me.

I stared at it confused then heard, "Come in" from the other side, I warily slide the door to the side and stuck my head inside. It was the very hut I grew up in!

"Come and sit down," a stern voice invited.

I turned my attention to the beautiful woman sitting at the table I use to eat my meals at, but instead of food, it was covered with piles of paper and small paintings.

"Who are you?" I questioned, not taking a single step inside.

"My name is Yuki, can you _please_ sit down? I have other meetings you know." She had long black hair and silver eyes. She wore the most beautiful blue kimono I've ever seen. She was almost glowing. I decided to humor her and sat down across from her.

"What's going on here?" I asked, confused beyond comprehension as where I am and why this whole thing was happening. "The last thing I remember is…is kissing my fiancée Inuyasha."

She shuffled through a few papers then read one off to me. "Midori Hakari, you are deceased. Death by," she checked a few more papers, "poison and injuries."

My eyes grew and I looked down at myself. I wore a pure white, silky kimono. My hair is pulled up and it was decorated with pearls. "I'm dead?" I choked out. Nothing hurt anymore.

"Your file says that you knew you were going to die. Now, are you satisfied with your life in the physical world? Are you ready to move onto your next life?"

"What?! No!"

"Why not?" she sighed. Yuki must have heard this a _million_ times.

"I got _killed_! In front of Inuyasha! You have to let me go back!"

She went through more papers. "Ah, Inuyasha, your half demon fiancée. Friends since childhood and you apparently got killed because you saved him."

"I deserve to go back! _Please_!"

She narrowed her silver eyes at me. "I've had to turn down war heroes with a dozen children at home, having to grow up without a father. A young girl that saved her love phases me none."

"What do I have to do?! I'll do anything to go back!"

She slammed her hands down on the table. "If you were meant to live you would have somehow! Someone would have saved you, or healed you or whatever! Accept your death in this life and move onto the next! There's nothing you can do!"

I sat there with wide eyes, but I wasn't concerned. "I guess if the only way for me to return to that world, is as a ghost, then I guess I will be a ghost."

"That's not an option," she huffed.

"Why not?"

"Those are for spirits that have business left in that world. You do not."

"What about Princess Akki? Is she dead? And what of the completion of the Shikon Jewel?" I asked, more calmly. Or trying to stay calm. Or whatever.

She reluctantly flipped through more papers. "Says here that the jewel was completed and Inuyasha finished off Princess Akki." She showed me a picture of Koga handing his shards over to Kagome, both of them looking awfully sad. She held up another with Kohaku handing his over. "Satisfied?"

"I still wanted to get married! Do you have some damn pictures of that?!" I snapped. The staying calm thing didn't exactly last long.

"That's a personal desire, not a business."

"It's _my_ business!"

"It's a selfish aspiration. One must be satisfied with what they've done in their life and you have nothing to complain about other than not getting _married_."

"What about Renki? What's he going to do?!"

She went back into the papers. "He and the rest of the demon children stayed on the mountain, making it a haven for hanyou children and other abandoned demons."

I lowered my gaze and my fists shook. I don't want my life to be over! It can't be! I-It just can't, we had so much we still wanted to do together and now we can't do anything!

A familiar voice came from behind me and I nearly jumped out of my skin. "Midori? Honey?" I spun around and my parents stood behind me. They were both dressed up in the finest clothes. They looked older than I remember them being the last time I saw them. "We've been watching over you since we died and we've been waiting to see you again," Mom smiled.

I quickly got up onto my feet and hugged them. "Oh my god! I've missed you guys so much!" I held my breath as realization set in. "So…how much have you seen?"

"_All_ of it," my dad laughed without humor.

"Oh…so you know about Inuyasha…" Shit! Cat's out of the bag now. Or the dog demon. Or something like that. They both nodded, still hugging me. "I know you guys don't approve but-!"

"Actually Midori," Mom interjected, "we were _not_ happy at first but we've watched you be together, even met his parents actually. And we were so excited about you getting married."

"But it's not possible now," Yuki mentioned.

Mom turned to her and looked at her in such a way, that Yuki stopped moving completely. "Now you listen here missy! I didn't spend my life raising a beautiful daughter, to never see her get married! We only had one child, she's our only legacy, we've seen her do good over and over again! Let her go back!"

"Oh great, this sort of backfired on me," she sighed. "Look, I know what you've done in you life Midori but there's nothing I can do for you. Only a few people have escaped death but even those people come back or eventually come back."

"I'm not saying I won't ever die! I just want more time!"

"And I can't give you this time! So stop being difficult!" she ordered.

"Are you calling my daughter difficult!" both of my parents shot back.

I smiled a little. Man I've missed them.

"I could get Inuyasha's parents in here and they'd want the same thing!" Mom mentioned. "You just wait-!"

"Hold on!" she yelled, everything went quiet and I started getting a little dizzy for some reason. "I'm getting a message…oh no!" She jumped across the table to try and grab me, but, for some reason, I completely blacked out.


	22. More Help

**So Midori was "on the other side", with her parents and a girl that was trying to get her to pass on and accept her death. But then, for some reason, she passed out. If that possible when you're dead? I know if it is or isn't. =] I'm not going to tell.**

**Disclaimer: What is this, chapter 21? Man, hope you guys know that I don't own Inuyasha.**

**Chapter 21: More Help**

I took a deep breath and looked around. At first I thought it was pitch black, but then I saw people standing over me.

I identified everyone, Kagome, Sango, Miroku, Shippo, Sesshomaru, Rin, Jaken, Kohaku, and more importantly, Inuyasha. Kagome burst out into hysterical tears while everyone laughed.

Inuyasha grabbed me tightly. "You're alive! You're really alive!"

"I-I'm alive?" I felt him kiss my cheek and I jumped in surprise. "Holy shit I'm alive! Oh my god, I was dead!" I found that my eyes were all watered up. "H-How did I get brought back?!"

Everyone glanced at Sesshomaru. He sheathed the sword known as Tetsuiaga and prepared to leave.

"Hold it Sesshomaru!" Inuyasha ordered. He picked me up into his arms and hurried over to him. "We might not ever get along and we both like it that way, but I owe you for saving Midori."

He glared at him. "I didn't do that for you." He looked at me too. "I didn't do it for you either."

"I will show you my thanks by not giving you a hug," I smiled.

He was quiet then turned around. "Come along Rin, Jaken."

"Bye Miss Midori," Rin waved. "Happy you're alive and all! Have fun with the visions!"

"Uh thank you?" I chuckled, waving back. Visions? What is she talking about?

As soon as they were gone, I got attacked with hugs from _everyone_. I couldn't understand what most of them said since it all sort of melted together with all the shrieking and sobbing from Kagome and everything else from the rest of the group. I was still getting over the fact that I _died_ and then came back again.

"It's so nice to be back you guys, but you're going to send right to death again if I don't get some air!" I mentioned.

They all jumped back and gave me space. I wobbled on my feet a little but got my balance back. I took a deep breath and smiled at them. "Okay, I need some more hugs."

They jumped right back onto me, even Inuyasha and Miroku lessened their pride to hug me the same way Kagome and Sango were. Shippo went on top of my head and hugged me that way.

"Midori," Kagome gasped, she pulled out of the pile, "what was the other side like?!"

"Yeah!" Shippo exclaimed. "Do you remember what it was like?"

We all sat on the ground and Inuyasha did not leave three inches in between us. "Well at first it was pure white, the whitest white I've ever seen, but then I went through a door and went into the place I grew up in. A woman was inside-,"

"Was it a beautiful woman?" Miroku questioned. Sango gave him a look. "What? I think it…adds to the story to know what if she was attractive or not."

I shook my head. "Yes, she was good looking. She asked me if I was satisfied with my life and of course I wasn't, considering the way I went. There was a bit of arguing on what I had to do before she brought my parents into it. Luckily they took my side but then I just passed out. When I woke up I was here," I summarized quickly. "I never really hit the true after life."

"Wait, you met with your parents?" Inuyasha questioned in surprise. I nodded. "Do they…know?!"

"Um yeah, they know."

"_And_?!" Kagome demanded.

I leaned onto Inuyasha's arm. "They actually approve of it." I tilted my head up to look at him. "They actually know your parents, so they know too."

"_My_ parents?" I nodded again. "They're…happy right?"

"I don't know, but they have to be awfully happy if they're together."

"It's reassuring that one day we might be able to connect with our love ones who have died," Sango muttered. "But we're all so happy we could have you back Midori." She rubbed her eyes and even in the darkness I could see the dark circles under all their eyes. Even Inuyasha had them. I wish I was able to see what happen between the time in the cave and now. Were they really that broken up?

"Thanks," I hugged Inuyasha tightly, afraid that if I let go I would lose him again. "I couldn't be gladder to be back." I stared after where Sesshomaru and his band disappeared into the night. I really owe him; I wonder why he saved me. I glanced up at Inuyasha. Did he have something to do with it?

Kagome yawned widely. "Well, it's been a long day. I better hit the sack before something else happens, like another demon overlord or someone else gets revived from the dead. I can't stand any more excitement for one day," she pulled herself into her 'sleeping bag', "goodnight."

Why did she want to hit a sack? Is there something in the sack to be hit? Why would she want to hit it? "Goodnight," the rest of us replied.

"I'll have to join her," Sango nodded, leaning over and giving me another hug. Miroku laid down next to her on Kirara and Shippo slipped in with Kagome.

I glanced up at Inuyasha and he looked down at me. "They sure left us alone quickly," I whispered.

He didn't say a word, didn't care that no one was even asleep yet, and pulled me over to him and kissed me strongly. It surprised me and I fell back a little, it was a good thing he was holding onto me. I saw his face blush when he noticed what he did, with wide gold eyes, and quickly leaned back.

"Whoa uh…I've been…wanting to do that since Sesshomaru brought you back," he explained, putting his hands up his sleeves.

I sat there then frowned. "Inuyasha," I crawled over to the front of him then but my hands on my hips, "did you forget who I was over the time I was dead?"

"Uh…you're Midori…right?"

I rolled my eyes. "I'm you _fiancée_ soon to be _wife_, and I just came back from the other side, kiss me you idiot!" I whispered harshly.

His eyebrows rose up. "Really?"

"Hell yeah!" I put my arms around his shoulders and pressed my forehead against his. "The person who tried to convince me to go to the other side was very good at her job," I murmured, "the only reason I didn't pass on was because of you. I missed you so much. Now, I'm not going to be very happy if you don't give me another kiss."

He didn't hesitate.


	23. Visions

**Midori is back from the dead! Sesshomaru brought her back with his father's sword and Inuyasha said he was thankful! =D Brotherly tolerance! Aw!**

**Disclaimer: Still do not own Inuyasha. =]**

**Chapter 22: Visions**

I blinked a few times, remembering this set up. I was in a cave with a huge gape in the wall. I spotted Inuyasha holding…_me_ in his arms. I glanced down at myself and I was see through. I held my hand in front of my face and could see Princess Akki bleeding out on the other side of the cave.

I rushed over to Inuyasha and the other me. Was this the visions Rin mentioned? A recall of what happened?

"Damn it Midori!" He put his face into the crook of my neck and I remembered feeling water seep through my kimono. "I still need you here! You have to pull through!"

I watched a smile cross my face. "You're the best Inuyasha, you've always been able to handle yourself because you're the strongest person I know." I watched myself reach up and touch his cheek with my cold fingers. "You'll always be my number one." I felt sick to my stomach watching this.

I knew that as Inuyasha and the other me leaned into each other, I was about to take my last breath. I grimaced, seeing the pain on his face when he noticed I wasn't breathing.

"Midori?" The other me sunk into his arms. "Midori! No! Wake up!" He whipped the tears off his face. "You're stronger than this! I know you're not dead!"

"Oh, she's dead," Princess Akki chuckled, pulling my fan out of her neck. "We both know that her heart has stopped beating, and good riddance, damn girl."

Inuyasha quickly set my dead body down and whipped around to her. He breathed heavily and his eyes turned red and purple lines started to stretch across his cheeks. Even though I wasn't seen by him, I backed away as his teeth and claws lengthened. I've seen him shift into his demon form before but he appeared to be even more angry then he usually is! This never happens unless he's in a near death situation and doesn't have Tetsuiaga! I've never seen him so angry before!

"You killed her! Bitch, you _killed_ _her_!" he roared furiously. He jumped into the air and attacked her.

I winced when I heard his claws slash into her. When I opened my eyes again, Inuyasha was carrying my dead body out of the cave. I must have moved forward in time! I blinked again but nothing changed so I hurried after him, trying to keep up with the memories. I walked next to him like I usually would.

We went down the mountain and I could see the full grown demons flying away from the mountain, like we expected them to. There was no sound of battle so that was a good sign. I already knew what was going to happen to Renki and the other demon children so that was even more reassuring.

"Why did you do that?" I heard him mutter to the other me while he carried me. He was back to his normal self, no longer a full demon. "You're so stupid, you didn't have to do that."

"Don't be sad," I told him, even if he couldn't hear me either. "I'll be back to you in no time. I _promise_."

"I said that I would protect you! Why wasn't I able to save you?! And now you're…you're my best friend, the love of my life, you are my Midori!"

I stared at him and noticed that my eyes were getting a little misty. I rubbed my teal eyes. When I took my hands away, I was now about halfway down the mountain with all of our group, including Renki, his friends, and Koga. They were all centered on Inuyasha holding me still in his arms.

"I forgot about the tunnels to the caves," Renki cried. Sango pat his head, shedding tears like everyone else. "H-How could I just forget about something like that?"

"It's not your fault," Kagome assured him between hiccups. She was a _mess_. "I left the Shikon-Shikon Jewel _hic_ with her." She reached over and look the chain with the jewel off of my neck. "It was my responsibility to _hic _protect it and complete it, not hers." She took the three jewels shards she already collected from Koga and Kohaku and put it in there with it.

"Um you guys do realize that Princess Akki was the one to kill me right?" I mentioned bluntly. "Don't think it was any of you that injected me with poison and beat the livings out of me, literally."

They continued to weep and it irritated me a _little_ when someone took my death as their fault. I thought Koga was going to be more then happy to blame it on a certain hanyou, but no one knew I had gotten captured and by the time he got there, I was already half dead. Inuyasha told them this but still said that "If I was more careful" or "If I stayed with her". I don't think he's taken on so much responsibility in his life, but it was all unnecessary though.

Inuyasha turned his head and I followed his eyes and found Sesshomaru, Jaken, and Rin stood by the edge of trees. When everyone noticed him, Koga ran, no surprise there, and Renki and his friends said goodbye and left.

"So the girl has passed," he stated. "Thought I smelt poison."

"Lord Sesshomaru, she was so nice to me, can you please bring her back?" Rin asked, pouting.

My eyes grew, I came back because Rin wished it? The same surprised look of realization crossed Inuyasha's face. "Sesshomaru," he started, "I know you can't stand me and you wish for my demise, but if you bring Midori back, I'll do anything. I doubt I'll have anything you want but I'll do what I can. Then I won't ever ask anything of you ever again. I can promise that with confidence."

"Silence." He wandered over to Inuyasha and glared at him. "Put her down."

"You're the best Lord Sesshomaru," Rin enthused.

He drew out his sword and concentrated on the dead me. It's like he was seeing something. Then he sliced all around me then backed up. Everyone made a circle around the other me and it was dead quiet.

I knew what happened after this so I backed up and leaned against a tree. Then I felt the dirt rumble under my feet. I looked down and a hill grew up under me and then I felt myself swirl into the darkness.


	24. Heart to Heart

**So what happened in the last chapter Me? I don't know, Myself, do you know I? I do know, Me, Midori got these visions of what happened while she was dead. That's basically all that happened. It was fun to write though. =]**

**Disclaimer: Hm, do I own Inuyasha? No, no I do not.**

**Chapter 23: Heart to Heart**

I yawned and opened an eye and peeked around. It was day now and I saw everyone either eating or packing the few things we had up. I yawned again and scratched my head as I sat up.

Those visions, I wonder if they're all true.

"Good morning Midori!" Shippo grinned, popping in out of nowhere and nearly giving me a heart attack. "We're finally getting off the mountain today!"

I nodded. "And thank goodness for that."

He gave me a hug, "I think we're going to be eating good with all the parties, villagers will be throwing in our honor."

Who's going to believe that our group defeated Princess Akki and took care of her army? A bunch of humans, a hanyou, and two demons, killed the demoness that's been terrorizing villages for hundreds of years? Not likely. "It would be pretty nice not to worry about food for a while."

Miroku came up and wondered, "Ready to go?"

Shippo grinned. He went over to Kagome and took position on his back. Miroku assisted me onto my feet.

"Ready to get off the mountain huh?" he smiled charmingly at me.

"Very much so. I can't believe everything is over though."

He pat my shoulder. "You're not getting cold feet are you? My offer still stands with bearing my-."

Inuyasha knocked him over the back of the head. "Don't be stupid, damn Monk. You're almost as bad as the fleabag, Koga."

"Cold feet?" I glanced down at my bare feet. "Hm I don't think so."

"Miroku, you better not be doing what I think you're doing!" Sango hollered.

"Of course not Sango!" Miroku assured her, in his usual charismatic ways. "Just making sure no one is getting jitters about anything." He quickly went back over to Sango before Inuyasha decided to pick a fight.

"He better knock that off soon," Inuyasha said, mostly to himself. He didn't sound angry though, which was a little weird. He turned to me and kneeled down, inviting me on his back. "And you better not be getting cold feet."

"Of course not," I scoffed, climbing onto him. I've been waiting too long to be with him to back out because of nerves. He started running and I quickly wrapped my arms around him. "Hey Inuyasha…I had a really weird dream last night."

"Yeah? What about?"

"About what…happened while I was on the other side, but with you guys," I tried to explain. "No one could see me but I could follow people and move around in that time sometimes when I close my eyes."

I heard him chuckle lowly so I knew he thought it was really just a dream. "Anything interesting?" he wondered.

"I learned that you went demon and finished off Princess Akki."

He turned his head suddenly. "How'd you know that? No one was there when it happened!"

"I told you, I had this dream that showed me what happened. I saw nearly everything from when I died to when Sesshomaru brought me back."

His face got red. "Oh…so you…heard everything I said?"

"Uh huh."

"Mm…and?"

"Everyone turns into an idiot in your mind when you're in a rotten mood," I joked. "You even said _I_ was stupid and I was _dead_."

He rolled his gold eyes and his ears twitched. "I was frustrated."

"And crying."

"…Shut up."

I couldn't help but smile, I had to be serious for a second though. "You need to stop blaming yourself, all of you do. It wasn't any of your fault of what happened."

There was a long silence. Longer than our usual long silences. It bothered me and made me nervous. "I was supposed to protect you and I wasn't able to."

I frowned and flicked his ear. "There was nothing you _could_ have done! What happened, happened, so stop being a mope about it."

"A mope?"

"That's right, I said mope. You're being a mope about it."

"Am not!"

"Are too! You act all depressed about it when it's over and done with!"

"It's not…ug it's the fact that it happened at all that bothers all of us. What if something like that happens again?"

"It won't!"

"How do you know that? We don't have to look for shards anymore but there's plenty of demon out there that would do anything to get their hands on a _full_ jewel."

"So…" I gulped hard. "It's not over…"'

He sighed deeply. "It better get easier. I don't want to spend my life fighting like my old man did."

"You could have fooled me."

"What?"

"You _love_ to get in fights. I swear, you mess with people so you can fight."

"I don't want to be doing that for the _rest of my life_ though. I'm not saying it's going to happen right away…but we're going to have," his voice faltered and his cheeks reddened, "well…kids. I don't want them to be in danger or grow up use to battle. That's how Sesshomaru turned out the way he did."

I blushed too but got back on track. "That was the most responsible thing I think I've ever heard you say, like ever."

A ghost of a smile crossed his lips. "I've never had to be responsible about anything before because there was no one expecting anything from me. Well besides having to kill demons."

"You don't have to worry about anything Inuyasha, any demon that dares to face any of us will quiver in fear. We're the ones that killed not only Naraku, but also Princess Akki," I assured him. I kissed his cheek and smiled. "I'm glad Renki found his place though. And maybe it's good that Koga thinks I'm still dead, that can stick for a while."

He laughed. "You know that won't last forever right?"

"Maybe not, but I want to see how long it'll take him. Hopefully we're off and married by then. I didn't come back from the dead to have him come running after me again, I came back to be with you," I huffed.

"Midori?"

"Yeah?"

"I _love_ you."

"Ha, ha, I love you too."


	25. Luxury

**In the last chapter, well it was just another filler chapter. So Midori and Inuyasha talked about the visions, and the future, and that stuff. It was just a filler guys, nothing too terribly important. Not all chapters were created equal =]**

**Disclaimer: Do not own Inuyasha, or any other character (I've already explained Midori in one of my other chapter disclaimers), or the series that is also conveniently named Inuyasha. =]**

**Chapter 24: Luxury**

Turned out I was dead wrong about people not believing that we were the ones who killed Princess Akki and handled her army. Turned out that all of the villages all over the land knew already. Probably Koga blabbing or someone enthusing about the won battle. Even though there wasn't a battle by the sound of it.

The first village we went into was run by a powerful king and as soon as we proved we were the ones who just came down from the mountain, the people went to work to throw a grand party in our honor. The king supplied all of us with fresh _beautiful_ clothes for us to wear and plenty of servants to get us ready. It was ridiculous! In a good way! I don't think any of us have been pampered like their in our whole entire lives! I'm sure Miroku enjoyed all the young ladies helping him get ready but none of us knew since we all had our own rooms! The boys and girls weren't heaped together, we had our own rooms! It's amazing!

I leaned back as the girl finish painting my lips and another girl held a mirror in front of my face. I blinked a few times and resisted the urge to rub my eyes, not believing them. My hair was pulled up elegantly and my makeup was…glorious seemed like an understatement. I turned my head and continued to examine myself.

"You girls are really good!" I said breathlessly. I got onto my feet and spun around in the new, _expensive_ silk kimono. It was pearly white and had sakura flowers all over it. I had my fan on my side that was cleaned of Princess Akki's blood. It was also newly sharpened and it was shiner than the day I got it from my grandma.

"Lady Midori, your shoes," one of the girls pointed to the pair of wooden torture chambers on the ground.

"Um I don't think so."

They gave me a weird look. "Winter just passed here, it's still a bit cold outside," one of them warned. Another one I caught staring at the scars on my feet. It didn't bother me anymore.

"I can guarantee I've been through worse." Like death, for example.

Conveniently enough, someone came by and knocked on the door. One of the girls peaked outside. "Lady Midori's escort is here," she announced.

Escort?

"Escort? I'm more than an escort, I'm marrying the girl!" He pushed the door to the side. "Come on…"

I noticed the dumb founded look on his face while he looked me over. I smiled at him and was relieved that he wore his normal clothes. I didn't expect anyone to get him into any fancy clothing. I was right apparently.

"Pick your jaw off the floor Inuyasha," I snickered. "Thank you girls. I think both my fiancée and I can agree that I look pretty good."

They bowed to me and I joined Inuyasha. He cleared his voice and straightened his back. "You look nice," he commented lowly as we started to walk to where we were going to eat.

"Thank you. I bet when Miroku sees Sango, he won't be chasing girls for the rest of the night. Probably. Hopefully."

He glanced down at my feet. "She can handle him. So, you haven't lost your toes yet, somehow. It's cold out you know."

"I know." I looked down at his. "I don't want to be stumbling all over the place. And you don't wear shoes either."

"That's different."

"I made it through last winter and this one is over. Don't worry about it. Today is about fun and eating until our ancestors are full."

"Hopefully they have enough food," he smirked, reaching over and holding my hand. "I could eat this place out of house and home if I really wanted to."

"Be respectful Inuyasha," I warned. I quickly corrected myself. "Okay just try to act slightly more civilized so we don't get kicked out of this place."

"Uncivilized? When have I ever been uncivilized?" I gave him a questioning look. "Feh." Guess he thought of a time.

I squeezed his hand. "When we got back to Kaede's village you don't have to worry about it anymore. Who know how many more of these celebrations we still have to do."

We came to a door, guarded by heavily armed men. They didn't even look at us as they opened the sliding doors. Hm. So serious. Makes me want to paint of their faces or something ridiculous.

We went inside and the King, his wife, and his son sat on the right and left of him. Kagome and Shippo were already here, Kagome on the side of the queen and Shippo on the side of the prince. I took the hint of the boy and girls being separated and took a seat next to Kagome.

"The clothes you supplied us with, your Majesties, are _amazing_!" she enthused. Her hair was pulled up, similar to mine but I had more to work with since mine were longer. Her dress was light green with blue flowers.

"Nothing but the finest for our heroes," the Queen grinned. She was an ordinary looking woman, even with all the decorations she wore. I'm sure at a time she was very beautiful but the years have done their burden. The whole family looked nothing beyond ordinary. "Will the monk and demon slayer be joining us this evening?"

We looked around at each other. It was weird that they haven't shown up yet.

Then a guard opened the door and walked in. He bowed to us then stated, "Lady Sango and Monk Miroku have respectfully declined to joining for dinner. They have 'marital duties' to…uphold."

I blushed when I got the hint. I glanced over to Inuyasha and his face was a more surprised than embarrassed. "Guess you were right Midori," he commented with a bit of a smile.


	26. Celebration

**Wow, 24 Chapters done already. Well I'll let you guys know what happened in the last chapter. So Midori and the others showed up and the King and Queen invited them to live with them temporarily and celebrate the terrific win against Princess Akki. They were supplied with new, expensive clothes, full meals, and comfortable beds.**

**Disclaimer: I still do not own Inuyasha. I'm going to leave it at that. =]**

**Chapter 25: Celebration**

The royal family took no offence to Sango and Miroku not joining and continued with the _three course meal_! I couldn't finish the last course but I really wish I could have. The food was the best I've ever tasted! Even Kagome's future food like the chips and ramen didn't hold a candle to the royal meals!

After eating, we had a little show of dancers. This is where they pulled up Kagome and me to join them. It was so much fun even though I had _no_ Idea what I was doing. Kagome followed them a bit better than I did but we were both pretty bad. I'm sure Sango would have wanted nothing to do with this silliness so it was a good thing she was…occupied. Inuyasha was probably worried that I was going to yank him up to make him dance too, but I gave the poor sucker some mercy.

It got worse when Shippo went to bed and they pulled out the sake. I have had some before and I am very tolerant. Kagome was a light weight and was drunk in no time. She rambled on about not being able to drink back home but I honestly didn't understand most of what she said. Inuyasha drank a little…and drank a little more. The Prince was almost as bad as Kagome, the Queen drank respectfully, and the King generously offered us more and more after having his own cup filled, of course.

"You really do have the finest commodities your highnesses," I complimented, bringing more sake to me mouth.

"Why thank you, Lady Midori," the Queen thanked.

"Have as much as you wish, my friends," the King assured us. "There is much to celebrate! That Princess Akki and her stray demon army have been terrorizing is for four generations! Good riddance to that she-beast!"

Inuyasha raised his sake to that. "Haven't been that happy to kill anything before in my life."

We all drank to that and my head began to spin a little.

"This is so much _fun_," the drunken Kagome giggled. "Wish I could do this sort of thing back home!"

"If you could, you'd be like this all the time," I reminded her. "And you wouldn't be much of a help with a bow."

"Pft, nonsense, I'm _fine_."

"You're about as fine as the Prince," Inuyasha pointed out. We all glanced at the young man sleeping on his sitting cushion. "Surprised you're not out too."

"Oh." She slowly turned toward the King and Queen. "Might I say that your son is _very_ attractive? How is it that he's not married yet?"

Inuyasha and I exchanged a surprised look.

"Um," the Queen gave her husband a quick look before turning back to her, "we haven't found anyone suitable that he likes too."

"That's a _shame_! Because he seems nice. And stuff. Excuse me." She wavered onto her feet then left the room, where she ran and we kind of all knew what happened. The sake came back up, and probably the three course meal.

Inuyasha couldn't help but laugh, but he tried to hide it. I began to laugh too but controlled myself better. "Forgive her; the sake has clearly gone to her head."

"I think her head and the rest of her is cleared out now," Inuyasha snickered.

I shook my head at him and tried so hard not to laugh at that. "She does not drink much."

"Clearly," the King chuckled. "It's perfectly all right, it was quite entertaining."

"That it was," Inuyasha agreed. "Midori is probably the next one to get drunk."

"Oh? Am I now? I'm feeling perfectly fine, you're the one _giggling_ over there," I teased.

He smirked at me. "You probably can't notice, Midori darling, but you're wavering back and forth."

"And you just called me 'darling'."

"Touché."

"You just said touché, too," I mentioned. "That's weird."

He rolled his eyes and turned to the King. "What's the plan for tomorrow? More sake I hope."

"Anything you please Inuyasha. We will supply all of you with anything you'll want for the rest of your time here and when you're preparing to leave," he reassured him. "It's my mission to make sure you're all treated like royalty for the service you've done."

Inuyasha did all of the work.

"Well none of us get a chance to have a good drink very often, which would have been nice in certain times over the years," he chuckled. He drank more sake and it was quickly filled up after setting it down. "It's nice to be pampered for a change."

I hadn't noticed it before but Inuyasha actually looked clean. I knew that I got a bath before getting dressed, but how did they manage to get him clean? I leaned on my arm and drank some more. The king and queen started into their own conversation while Inuyasha and I began to slam on the alcohol a little more than we should.

I giggled as I stumbled on the way to my room. Inuyasha tried to help me walk but he was almost as bad as I was. He laughed uncontrollably and used the wall for balance. I held onto his arm the best I could.

"I-Inuyasha, I don't remember which room was mine," I admitted, almost falling onto my knees.

"I think I remember." He took one step forward, stumbled back a little, and then went forward again. "Why does the world keep turning so quickly?!" he complained, frustrated.

I helped by pulling him forward and almost fell forward myself. We both laughed and made it to the door we both recognized as my room. Inuyasha held the door open to the lit room for me I fell onto my mat and he closed the door behind me. He plopped onto the ground next to my bed while we both continued to laugh like we had completely lost our minds.

I wiped around my eyes, avoiding the makeup. "What are we even laughing about?" I asked, still giggling like a moron.

"I-I have _no_ idea." We both glanced at each other then started laughing all over again. "Why are there two of you Midori?"

"I think you're drunker than me Inuyasha." I uncoordinatedly crawled closer to him. I could see only one of him, and thank goodness there was only one of him. His white ears were lowered slightly and his cheeks were pinker than normal. His gold eyes were a bit darker. I smiled at him lovingly. "Let's do something tonight." I pulled my long hair down out of what took the girls a while to do.

His face turned even pinker but a mix between a smirk and a soft grin crossed onto his face. From the window, the light of the moon made his white hair appear like snow.

"I suddenly feel more sober," he mentioned. "There's only one of you again."

"That's good. I want to make a little change tonight."

He raised an eyebrow. "What's your plan?"

I leaned over and kissed his cheek. "It'll be fun," I assured him.


	27. A Little Surprise

**Ok, last chapter. Everyone celebrated the win in their own way. Kagome got very drunk, so did Inuyasha and Midori, Shippo just had fun before going to bed, and Sango and Miroku…ha, ha.**

**Disclaimer: I really do not own Inuyasha =]**

**Chapter 26: A **_**Little**_** Surprise**

I slowly came out of my heavy sleep and yawned deeply before opening my eyes. Light streamed in and glowed right on my face. I felt Inuyasha's arms around my stomach from behind me. I hear him breathing slowly so he must have been asleep.

I brought one of his hands up to my lips and kissed it before slipping away from him. I got onto my feet and my kimono laid lose on my shoulders.

What happened last night?

I yawned again and went over to the large bowl of water. I looked down into it and saw my reflection. My eyes grew and I reached up and touched the ends of my light blonde hair. It wasn't at the bottom of my back anymore though, it was at my shoulders. But that wasn't what freaked me out. It was the two, fuzzy, ears on the top of my head that replaced the ears that were once on the sides of my head. They twitched in surprise and I nearly passed out.

"Inuyasha?" I called, my throat closing up a bit in astonishment. I pulled my short hair back from my neck and saw a bite mark. This made me wonder even more what happened last night. "Inuyasha, w-wake up."

He groaned and I heard him sit up. "What is it?" he croaked tiredly. "Ug, my head."

I turned around and saw that his long hair severe bed head. It caused a giggle to bubble out of my throat. "Oh my god Inuyasha, you're _hair_," I gasped, staring at him.

His eyes grew too. "Y-You have ears on your head!"

I held my hands up and found them clawed. "W-What in the world happened last night?"

"Don't you remember?"

I glanced at the funny haired Inuyasha, which still tickled my funny bone a bit. "No, I don't."

"Well first you wanted to cut your hair, then uh…"

"What?"

"Well…" He tapped on his neck. "I marked you."

"Marked me?" I put my hand over the bite on my neck. "What does that mean?"

"It's something that um dog demons do to claim someone as…their mate," he explained.

I raised my eyebrows. "We didn't…do the deed…did we?"

"No! No, no, no, we didn't," he assured me, blushing out of control. "I just bit your neck is all and I guess it did something weird to you." He sniffed me. "You smell like…a hanyou."

I stumbled backward a few steps before finding the wall to hold onto. My eyes couldn't be any wider.

"Are you angry?" he wondered, holding his arms out to make sure I wasn't going to fall over.

I shook my head slowly. "Extraordinarily shocked."

"Good or bad? Do I have to tell the guards to take precautions?"

I shook my head again. "I'm like you?" He nodded and I smiled. "_Awesome_," I breathed.

"But you don't know how difficult it is to be a half breed, Midori. I don't know how it happened or why but you _don't_ want this."

"How do you know what I want? This is…very nearly a miracle Inuyasha. Now I can _really_ defend myself." He opened his mouth to argue with me but I shoved my hand over it. "There's no way for me to go back, so you might as well enjoy that you don't have to worry about me so much anymore."

He glared at me and I felt him frown deeper. "Take your hand off," he grumbled.

"Are you going to be more reasonable or do I have to get Kagome to tell you to 'sit'?"

He shuddered at the word. "That was low," he said through my fingers. "_Fine_."

"Good." I took my hand from his mouth. "Wonder how the others are going to take to my new abilities and looks."

"They're going to assume…"

"Assume what?" I asked, distracted by the claws that replaced my nails.

"…Midori." I glanced up at him. "They're going to _assume_."

"_Oh_…well they'll have to trust us."

"That'll work well," he said very sarcastically.

"No kidding," I sighed. "Well we obviously can't hide it forever." I started playing with my ears. "How do you not mess with these things all day?"

"Uh I was born with them."

"Oh right. Well, they're a bit different from what I'm used to."

I heard someone approach the door and we both turned to look at it as someone knocked on the outside. "Breakfast is starting in five minutes Lady Midori," a female voice told me through the door.

"Guess that makes it easy for everyone to see. You need to fix your hair though, Inuyasha."

"Why?" he questioned, putting his hand on his head.

"Because it looks hilarious," I stated bluntly, with a smile of course.

"Hilarious? I doubt that."

"I nearly fell over when I saw you."

"I nearly fell over when I saw _you_," he retorted, rolling his eyes.

"The King, Queen, and Prince will not be joining for breakfast," one of the guards informed us before opening the doors.

I nodded to them and smiled, since I was in a terribly good mood. Inuyasha just put his hands up his sleeves and glowered like he always does. He's a bit sourer that he now has a half demon fiancée. I understand why he's worried but I had a little bit of experience with the whole taunting thing. Those people in my village weren't exactly easy to deal with while he was gone, but if I handled it then, I can handle it now. I doubt we can do anything.

We walked inside and everyone was already eating, except for Kagome who I was convinced was passed out with her head on the table. Shippo, Miroku, and Sango ate their meals, happily speaking to each other with their beautiful clothes on. They didn't seem to notice us until the doors closed.

Miroku was the first one to look up and he was already drinking his tea. His eyes grew and he spit it out onto an unsuspecting Kirara. She jumped awake and ran over to Sango. When she saw me, her jaw dropped and so did her cup. The tea flew out of the cup and onto Shippo that yelled and woke up Kagome.

While this happened in front of my eyes, I felt my ears flicker around in nervousness and at the little sounds I could now recognize. Every sound my crystal clear.

Once everything was done…happening, everyone's eyes were on us. I on purposely shifted my hair so it covered up the bite mark on my neck.

"Hi guys," I greeted as bravely as I could. I sat down next to Shippo and Inuyasha sat across from me, next to Miroku.

Kagome held her hand to her head as she stared at me. "Midori?"

"Yeah?"

"…Why do you have ears like Inuyasha?" she asked, completely hung over.

"And why are your nails so long…and sharp?" Sango added.

"Inuyasha, looks like we has the same means of celebration last night," I heard Miroku snicker to Inuyasha lowly.

"We did not do _that_!" he exclaimed.

"Do what?" Shippo asked, confused by what we were talking about. He wrung the tea out of his clothes.

"Nothing," I assured him. "_That_ didn't happen guys. We both swear. Right?"

Inuyasha nodded in agreement. "We definitely didn't do _that_."

"Then what happened for Midori to look like a hanyou?" Miroku, questioned.

There was a silence where we looked at each other, waiting for the other to say something. I didn't want to take the lead on this; he's the one who marked _me_! But…I'm the one who's enjoying this situation more than he is.

"We think something happened because Inuyasha put a mate mark on me," I explained. I glanced at him and he looked angry at the embarrassment. "It didn't get further than that though. It's just the bite, we think."

"I've never heard of such a thing," Miroku commented. "Have you Sango?"

She thought about it more a moment. "Can I see the mark?"

I pulled my hair away from my neck and showed her. "So? What do you think?"

"Is it permanent?" Inuyasha wondered. I narrowed my eyes at him. "What? I want to know."

"Well it's _definitely _permanent," she chucked without humor. "I've heard stories of something like this. I didn't mention it before because I was _sure_ they were myths."


	28. Certain People I Don't Care For

**Ha, ha, so Midori is kinda sorta a hanyou now. How? Why? Read this chapter and you will know! Maybe. I don't know. Hopefully. =] The whole chapter won't be about that though. That I do know.**

**Disclaimer: I seriously do not own Inuyasha, I pinkie swear, or whatever other type of thing I need to do to prove I don't =]**

**Chapter 27: Certain People I Don't Care For**

Sango told us a whole story about a hanyou like Inuyasha, and a human like me, that were in love, like us. It was said they were never bound as mates by the mark, so she didn't turn hanyou. By the time they got around to having a child, it was said that something about the human overwhelming the demon in the baby, made something wrong happen in the pregnancy. The baby was still born, but half of it looked demon and the half looked human. The baby didn't live past a week. The girl almost didn't live through the pregnancy. So by the end of the story, Inuyasha didn't feel so bad anymore about him marking me and thus making me a hanyou.

We did thank their highnesses before we left, but we did have to leave, not wanting to put this place in danger of demons attacking since we did still have the jewel. Not to mention we were excited to get back to Kaede's village, which was easy to protect with her miko powers, and possibly get into having normal lives. We'll still have to fight something off occasionally, there's always going to be a bigger demon wanting to kill us all but we all believe that most of them will back off since we did kill both Naraku _and_ Princess Akki. Many of them would still risk their lives to get the jewel though.

I held onto Inuyasha's hand while we ran through the woods, getting closer and closer to the village. The others followed not far behind us but I could actually hear them. I could see clearer, run faster, hear farther, and even smell better. It was incredible and I had to wonder how I lived without these enhancements. It's like my eyes have been squinted my whole life, now I finally have them open. I knew there was a difference between human senses and demon senses but I never thought it would be this big of a difference!

Both Inuyasha and I turned our heads at the same moment, hearing and catching the scent of something coming this way. He growled, obviously knowing who it was. There were two people.

A small army of soul keepers flew out in front of Inuyasha and me. We skidded to a stop in the long grass. I knew I smelled clay and death. That's not all though, I could smell something else, something like…dirty dogs. Then they got a bit closer and I knew who they were.

I groaned and my ears lowered. My hand latched onto my fan and I couldn't quite decide who I despised more, the demon who practically stalked me or the zombie chick that wishes for my death at the end of her arrow. I honestly couldn't decide. I guess they both figured out I wasn't dead.

Then the soul keepers dispersed slightly and Kikyou and Koga came out of his tornado. At first both of them looked mad, but when they noticed my change in appearance, Koga looked surprised and Kikyou looked _furious_.

"What the hell?!" he exclaimed. "Midori…what's with the ears?"

"What's with you being _alive_?" Kikyou questioned, narrowing her eyes coldly in my general direction. Her impassive look creeped me out to another level.

"Watch it Kikyou," Inuyasha warned.

"What did you do to her Mutt Face?" Koga demanded.

"Hey, back off," I ordered. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the rest off the group escaping off towards Kaede's Village. "Hey, where are you guys going?!"

"This seems like something we shouldn't get entangled with," Miroku explained. "See you in the village!"

"Did they just…abandon us?" I asked in disbelief.

"Chickens," he commented.

"Explain this!" Kikyou brought our attention back to them. "Why is the Blonde alive and a hanyou?"

"Don't refer to me as 'The Blonde'. I'll explain it quickly and simply so we can have this over with. Sesshomaru brought me back to life and Inuyasha gave me a mate mark so now I'm a hanyou. Simple enough?" There was no reason for me to get into detail about it, these people irritate me. They should be lucky I gave them an explanation at all.

"Mate. Mark?" Koga repeated. Figures that, that would be the part he catches.

"Yeah," Inuyasha nodded proudly. It was the first sign of him being truly happy about it I've seen yet. "This is the real deal Koga, you give up yet?"

"Are you married yet?"

"Well no."

"Then there is not a chance I'm giving up."

"Me neither," Kikyou agreed. "I know it's not over."

"Really? Because I'm pretty sure I'm the one with the claws, fangs, and dog ears here, not you." Jeez, that was snappy. "Can we all just move on so this isn't awful for any of us in the end?"

"Are you joking? I'm much too difficult to do that," Koga scoffed.

Not kidding.

"I haven't lived this long jut to give up." She glared at me. "I don't have the time to deal with you right now. So watch your back."

Inuyasha opened his mouth to defend me but I shook my head at him. It was useless to argue with her. I wasn't going to just not threaten her back though. "You better watch _your_ back. I'm not just human anymore. And as for you Koga, you can go away too. Inuyasha and I will be married in no time."

"_No_ time," Inuyasha emphasized.

"Yeah, what he said," I nodded, trying to sound serious.

"So Koga, I'm going to be the bigger man and just let you go," he smirked. He took my hand and tried to guide me through the middle of Kikyou and Koga, but that didn't go over well with either on them.


	29. Adjusting

**Kikyou and Koga came back =] that's basically all that happened in the last chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I serious don't own Inuyasha.**

**Chapter 28: Adjusting**

I glanced over at Inuyasha and when our eyes met, I burst out laughing. Kaede was wrapping up my arm that was bleeding quite a bit. Inuyasha had a good bruise of the side of his face, but neither of us could get those stupid grins off our lips.

I got into a fight with Kikyou and Inuyasha did with Koga. We both won but didn't escape without injuries. The only reason I got hurt at all was because I wasn't used to this sort of power. She just got a good shot with an arrow at my arm but it still only skimmed me.

"Maybe we shouldn't have left you two there alone with them," Miroku chuckled, drinking his tea like everyone else, except Shippo and Kirara that was out playing outside.

"It was fun though," I mentioned. "Especially since it was Kikyou."

"And Koga," Inuyasha added. "Now you understand why I enjoy fighting."

"I _do_. I'm not going to make a bad habit out of it though."

"There ye go child." Kaede finished. "If ye heal as fast as Inuyasha does, that cut will be gone by tonight. Don't think ye need the bandage Midori."

"I suppose not, I didn't really think about it that way. Guess I'm still not used to being a hanyou yet." I reached up and touched my ear with my good arm, I still can't believe it.

"Well I wish I was there to see it," Kagome laughed. She closed up her yellow backpack and pulled it onto her back. She got onto her feet and waved to us. "I'm heading back home for a while guys, I'll be back eventually."

"Oh, bye Kagome," Sango waved back. We all said goodbye and waved before she left the hut.

I'm sure she was excited to get home. This was all over for the most part. Hopefully there aren't too many demons in the future, since she's bringing the jewel with her.

All of us settled into the village. Sango and Miroku got their own hut, Inuyasha and I did too. Shippo was to live with us but he was spending a lot of time with the other children, having fun and being a kid like he deserved, so we weren't able to give him the news.

After getting our own hut, Inuyasha and I went off into his forest. We held hands until we came to the tree that Kikyou had stuck him to all those years ago. I sat down on the ground and pulled out the dinner I packed.

My ears twitched at every sound around me, so they were going crazy since we were in a forest. I don't see Inuyasha's ears being this twitchy.

I glanced up to check and he was glaring at the tree with a giant scar on it.

"What did that tree ever do to you?" I joked.

He looked down at me from his feet. "What?"

"You were looking at it like it had Naraku's or Princess Akki's face on it," I explained. "Why so irritated?"

"You can't guess? Bad memories."

"Oh, well no reason to be mad at the tree." I threw him a pear. "I like that tree, so you know."

"_Why_? I was stuck to that thing for fifty years and it was absolute _hell_."

"I know, but while I was in the future…this tree was almost reassuring to me. I don't know why since at the time I had no idea what had happened to you. Hell, I didn't even know what had happened to _me_."

He took a big bite out of his pear. "That's weird."

"You don't _sound_ that surprised."

He shrugged his shoulders. "I did just spend years doing some pretty odd stuff," he reminded me. "It'll have to take something pretty earth shattering to surprise me now."

"I think I'm pregnant."

"WHAT?!"

"Ha, ha! Got ya!" I laughed. "I surprised you!"

"You gave me a heart attack!"

"Pft, it's an impossible situation at this point in time. Don't hurt yourself." I took a bite out of my own pear and smiled. "So…are we going to go back to our old village?"

He sat down across from me. "Why'd we do that?" he wondered, his mouth full. "Last time we went there, it was supposed to be the last time, remember? We said our last goodbyes and everything."

"I know, but we finally avenged them and all. I thought it would be nice to pay our respects…again."

"Do you really want to go back there?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "It would be weird if there were ghosts still and they saw I was a hanyou," I chuckled, imagining it in my head.

"Since when are there _ghosts_ there?"

"I'm not saying there are, but if there were. Also, if you weren't a hero there before, the first time we went back there, you sure as hell are now. They're avenged and all."

"I didn't go there to avenge them, maybe for a short period of time I wanted to but in the end I had a different reason to kill Princess Akki."

"I know. But they still would be grateful."

"I don't think we'll exactly get that message from them."

I sighed, "I'm getting the sense you don't want to do."

"It's not that. It's…I have mixed feelings about that place. I have reasons I want to go back and I have reasons why I'd rather roast in hell along side Naraku and the Princess."

I laughed. "I'm with ya there. What about we…go to your mom's grave? We can visit the village while we're there then."

He gave me a weird look.

"What?"

He threw the core of the pear deep into the trees. "Seems like a strange excuse."

"Oh come on! It's not even that for away! We have nothing better to do, so we might as well."

"I can think of something better to do."

"Which is?" I asked exasperatedly.

"Like get married," my eyes grew wide at him, "for example."

"Are you trying to bribe me? With my own wedding?"

"…Did it work?"

"Not even a little."

"Damn."

"If you really don't want to go, we don't have to. We are a couple, so we're supposed to make decisions together…right? And I don't want to go alone."

He sighed and scratched his head. "How about we go there after we're settled down a bit, after being married and after the honey moon. I don't want to do any traveling right now."

"That actually…sounds like a great plan."

"Why do you sound surprised?"

"Because you hardly ever have an actual plan, and when you do they're pretty stupid."

"Wha? You callin' me dumb now?!"

"Of course not," I leaned over and gave him a peck on his cheek, "it's just your ideas."

"_Thanks_."

"Would you rather I lie?"

"…No."

"I love you," I gushed, trying to make it better.

"Is _that_ a lie?"

I shoved him over, as a clear answer. "You kiddin'. You're my number one!" I laughed.


	30. A New Life

***Sniff* So very close to the end. So very, very close. Not there yet, but close.**

**Kay, enough of the cry fest, I do not own Inuyasha, and I am so happy that's it's one of the last times I have to state that. =]**

**Chapter 29: A New Life**

I hummed to myself while I carried a bag of rice inside the hut with one hand, and a load of firewood in the other. I dropped them against the wall and checked the stew that was cooking over the fire. So far, I have not burned it like the others, which I was very proud of by the way. I quickly stirred it and looked around.

"They're _still_ out in the forest?" I spoke to myself in surprise. "I've never known them to miss a meal _yet_."

I went back over to the door and yelled out into the spring air, "Inuyasha! Inutaisho! Come on! It's dinner time!" I listened for a moment but I could hardly hear over all the children running around the village. Two of them being Miroku's and Sango's twin girls, one of them being Shippo. Usually Inutaisho was somewhere in that mix but today Inuyasha brought him out onto the woods to practice fighting, I assume.

I prepared myself to yell again but before I could, I saw about five large trees fall down from the forest, not too far from landing on our home! I shrieked and dodged the branches. I stared at the trees for a good five seconds before I saw my husband and my son come running out of the trees.

"Sorry Mom!" Inutaisho called, hardly holding back his laughter. "You should have seen me though! Tell her Dad! I did good right?"

The both of them stood in front of me and I glared at Inuyasha.

"What? The kid did good. He'll be takin' down large demons in _no_ time," he smirked.

"I'm very proud, but it's nearly dropping half the forest on the house I'm not happy about."

"Oh it was only just a few trees, we can take care of it after dinner," he licked his lips, "speaking of which, I believe I heard you say it was ready?"

"I don't think so; you boys need to take care of these trees _now_. After that, wash your hands off, and _then_ you can eat dinner."

"Aw _Mom_," Inutaisho whined.

"Don't you 'Aw Mom' me young man. It's my job to give you a hard time." I leaned over and kissed him on his forehead. "You'll appreciate it one day."

They both sighed and turned to take care of the tree that nearly crushed my house. Inutaisho was four now, he had white hair like Inuyasha but his hair was short and spiky. His ears were on top of his head and powder white. His eyes were probably one of my favorite features on him. It was a mix of both of our eyes, so they were teal with specks of brilliant, bright gold. Cute, _cute_ kid, hot headed like his dad of course but he holds his tongue better. Eats like he's a full grown man. Inuyasha eats like a demon ten times his size, so his son had a lot to live up to. Since I have such big eaters in my home, I'm constantly making food it seems like; it's too bad I'm really not good at cooking. It's good they're not too picky.

My eyes grew. The _food_!

I ran into the hut and immediately smelt burnt food. "Gosh darn it!" I yelled, quickly stirring the stew. All the meat was burst to the bottom of the pot.

I collapsed onto the ground facedown. I give up on life. I can't even make dinner without burning it. I groaned and my ears drooped.

"Midori? What are you doing on the floor?" Inuyasha asked, walking in after taking care of the trees and washing his hands. "Burn another one did ya?"

"I've been trying for years to make a decent meal, and I _still_ can't do it," I complained into the floor.

He sighed. "Come one Midori, let's go over to Miroku and Sango's hut for dinner." He pulled me off the ground, where I shrieked a little in surprise, and carried me out in his arms. "Inutaisho, will you put the fire out?"

Inuyasha finally set me down when we got over to our friend's house. Inutaisho hung from his back and dropped down when I was set down.

"Dad, you're so _strong_! I'm going to be able to throw mountains when I'm big!" he laughed, jumping up and down in front of him.

"I'm sure one day you will, but for now, we're going to _eat_."

I knocked on the sliding door. "Hey guys, it's Inuyasha, Inutaisho, and me."

One of the twins opened the door and smiled up at me. "Mommy, Daddy, look who's here!"

Sango popped her head out. "Oh hello! Come on in! Midori, did you burn dinner again?"

I nodded and sighed. "In my defense, I was a little distracted by some tree almost crushing our house."

Her eyes grew. "What?!"

"Ask Inuyasha," I chuckled, taking Inutaisho's hand and bringing him inside. He quickly ran off and played with the twins and Shippo, who was living with Sango and Miroku since my son was born.

After having our meal, the kids went off and played while the rest of us got to talk. It was simple stuff like the old times, the new times, what we expect to happen in the future. It was simpler now, less exciting, but we were all able to enjoy our lives instead of going every day wondering if we were going to get into some fight that would kill us. We were able to enjoy the small things.

"Isn't it odd we haven't seen Kagome around in a while," Miroku commented, taking a drink of his tea.

"She was just here a few weeks ago," Sango mentioned.

"Only here for a few hours though." I set down my cup. "I wonder what she's been up to."

"She has a life back home," Inuyasha reminded us. "As long as the jewel is safe."

"I hope she's happy, with whatever she's going," I murmured. "She seemed awfully happy though, when she was here last."

"She did," Miroku agreed. "We knew this sort of thing was eventually going to happen though. Her life is in her world, not here. Or it's not anymore."

"Sure do miss her though," Sango sighed. I nodded in agreement. "Wonder how much longer she's going to visit us before leaving us for good." I could tell that she was thinking about Kohaku too. After the fight back at the mountain he went off with Sesshomaru, Rin, and Jaken to figure out what he 'needed'. He said he'd eventually come back, but he wants to get over a lot of terrible stuff. I'm not surprised he's been gone as long as he has.

"Who knows. As long as she's content with the life she had there," Inuyasha stated bluntly. "Which is too bad, she was good with the kids."

"Shippo will miss her." Sango glanced at his bed in the corner. "We all will, when the time comes."

"Well, no reason of sadden the night with thoughts that don't even apply to us now," Miroku cheered up. "Lady Kagome is with us for now. So Midori, how's the pregnancy going?"

I put my hand over the little bump on my stomach. "Morning sickness is setting in. That's _always_ fun."

"Might just be your cooking," my husband ever so kindly joked.

A light laugh bubbled out of my lips. "Ha, it might be. He or she better get used to burnt food though."

"You guys know you're always welcome here, I can always cook for everyone," Sango offered.

"I might have to take lessons," I laughed. "Or I'll stick to rice. Haven't messed up on that too many times."

Sango and Miroku laughed, probably glad that I've never offered to cook for everyone.

I pat Inutaisho's head lovingly while he slept. "Goodnight Sunshine," I whispered before heading to bed. I pulled my hair out of my short braid and laid down next to Inuyasha.

He put his arm under my head and put his other hand on my baby bump. He was already half asleep but happily hummed by the feel of his future son or daughter growing inside me. "Mm, I love you," he muttered.

"Who? Me or the baby?" I asked, yawning deeply.

"Both of you, of course." He pulled me a little closer and kissed my cheek. "I was talking with Inutaisho about being a big brother, out in the forest today."

"Yeah? What did he say?"

"He promised he wouldn't be a bad as Sesshomaru," he laughed. "He said he was excited too."

I snickered, "Besides trying to kill you on multiple occasions, Sesshomaru really isn't really _that_ bad. He did bring me back from the dead, after all."

"That makes him a better person, not a better brother,"

I shrugged. "Fair enough. But that's a good promise for him to keep."

"I thought it was funny as hell, but yes, it's a good goal to work towards. He also hopes it's a boy, so he wants a brother."

"Another boy in this house? Oh god help me," I laughed.

"I thought the same thing. So I asked him what he would do if he had a sister."

"Yeah?"

"His face was priceless. You had to be there Midori. But he gave me this face then said, 'Dad, that's not funny'."

We both laughed out loud. "Oh that boy, what is he going to do if it _is_ a girl?" I chuckled. "I'll be happy either way of course."

"Same here."

I yawned again and my eyelids dropped. "Well it's about time to good to bed. Good night Inuyasha. Love you."

"Love you Midori." He leaned over and gave me a kiss.


	31. Ending Author's Note

**Author's Note**

I'm actually finished writing this in school. Shush, don't tell anybody! Ha! Well it's finished either way, took me a while but it's done. I'm glad I took the time to write this sequel To Be At Peace, I'm now satisfied with the story of Midori. =]

Who ever is reading this, you're awesome! I believe some of the best writing for people are in the author's note. So thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read this part of the story, of the whole entire fanfic! For me, both of them are pretty long so if you read both, you're absolutely epic!

So I want to explain Midori to you guys though. I wanted to make an OC that could possibly fit in with the original story line, but change it a bit. So Inuyasha was bullied, _but_ he had a friend there for him. Naraku was defeated _but_ it happened a bit differently. Switching it up a bit. Which is what Fanfic is about. I thought Inuyasha should have a loyal childhood friend, so that's where Midori come in. At first, I wanted her to be quiet and shy because of obvious lack of social skills, but I wanted that to give way when she became friends with Inuyasha.

I'd also like to mention that when I started To Be At Peace, I never thought I'd actually have Midori _die_! That literally just…seemed to happen. I don't really have complete control where my stories go, so it just sort of came up and I wrote it down. It was the weirdest thing!

But I loved writing scenes with Inuyasha and Midori, even before they were really together love wise. It made my day whenever I got to write that and I'm happy I got to end the whole thing with them being husband and wife, and parents of course.

I'm happy with the end product and I hope you guys did too =]

The End…and Stuff


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